big grower


A Fashionable New Endeavor Hort Couture is a plant brand created exclusively for


Today’s Challenges Gerry says the market is much more challenging


today than it was 30 years ago. “Here we are today, very successful, but the profi tability picture is nothing like it used to be.” “From my point of view, right now we are in a


quadruple whammy,” Gerry says. “The market is mature, our management structure is preparing for a transition, consumer buying habits have changed and the global economy is stagnant. Any one of those things can sink your business, and we have been dealing with all four of them,”


That is why C. Raker & Sons is constantly evolving, Gerry says. “There was a phrase around here that anything two years old was permanent and if it was three years old, it was forever. That is just the kind of attitude we have here,” Gerry says. Three years ago, Raker created a Blue Sky Projects


program to develop new products, projects and ideas that would provide future opportunities for the company. The idea is to leverage the knowledge the company already has and turn “blue sky” ideas into reality. Raker says the company is constantly evaluating the list of Blue Sky Projects to make sure they are attain- able and still make sense. Those that do continue to move forward, while others may be deferred to a later, more appropriate time.


What’s Next?


Susie has been in (and around) the plug and liner business her entire life. She worked in the greenhouses as a teenager, went to Michigan State University and got a degree in horticulture, worked with several compa- nies allied to the industry and Raker, and came back to Litchfi eld to work in and help run the family business. She admits she gets a little nervous when she takes the time to think about the future and where she would like to see the company go. “There is a lot of history here, but… I have to put my mark on it as we move ahead,” she says.


One of her challenges is maintaining the company’s independence. Despite the current business climate, she says, there are no plans to align with a large corpo- rate partner. “We like to do things our way,” she says. “We are looking at emerging businesses. But we need to continue doing what we do well,” she says. “There will always be a focus on plugs and liners.”


independent garden centers. Designed with a fl air for fashion, Hort Couture provides unique and exclusive genetics, sophisticated packaging and creative displays. For several years now, C. Raker & Sons has had a


license to produce plugs and liners for Hort Couture. But that recently changed. “Hort Couture is a hot topic around here,” says Susie.


Especially for Gerry: He and his wife, Patty, are now partners in Hort Couture Plants LLC, a limited liability corporation created with Hort Couture’s founders, Jim and Jennifer Monroe. The LLC owns the license to the Hort Couture brand and can sublicense it. Raker and Monroe announced the deal at OFA Short Course in July. Hort Couture Plants will manage all activities for the


Hort Couture brand, including genetic evaluation, product development, broker relations and distribution of all of the Hort Couture programs. Gerry says C. Raker & Sons “will provide a fair amount


of horsepower” to get the Hort Couture Plants program off the ground, handling such things as supply chain, providing IT resources, research “and some of our plant geek–ness,” Susie adds. Hort Couture’s potential really intrigued Gerry. He says


he likes what Hort Couture has to offer, “creating a virtual, vertically integrated company.” “Instead of mergers and acquisitions, we are creating


an integrated company through agreements and partner- ships. It wouldn’t be the right thing to do from a business point of view” for Raker to wholly acquire the Hort Couture brand, he says. There is currently a group of allied brokers selling the


brand, and they are creating a group of allied wholesale growers who can fi nish the product and sell it to IGCs. “The whole thing about Hort Couture Plants is that it is


all about the collaboration of businesses,” remarks Gerry. You can learn more about the two companies


at growers.hortcoutureplants.com and www. hortcoutureplants.com.


But she says the company’s distribution and technology expertise also provides new avenues into the future. Using that expertise “and thinking outside the plant box” will allow the company to differentiate itself from others.


Susie says the company’s ongoing Blue Sky Projects, under Gerry’s directive, are putting the company in a strategic position for the next 50 years. “Right now, we have a lot of lines in the water, and hopefully one of those lines lands us a big whopper,” Susie says. ■


Tim Hodson in editorial director of GPN’s Big Grower. He can be reached at thodson@sgcmail.com or 847.391.1019.


34 GPN 2010 Digital Resource & Buyers Guide www.gpnmag.com


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