GROWING PAINS

GROWING

PAINS

Independent retail consultant, Liam Kelly asks if the time is right for a code of practice for Irish growers

I’ve had a somewhat turbulent relationship with certain Irish plant growers. That association began benignly enough back in the late 80s when I had my first introduction to them and what they do, but as I took over purchasing as part of my job and began to buy from them

I became more and more frustrated at how many weren’t moving at the same pace as garden centres, who were just starting to operate as proper retailers. Many nurseries back then had a nostalgic view of what it meant to be a grower and were living in the world of, ‘But we’ve always done it that way…’ As a buyer my frustration with them meant that I had more than one altercation with various nurseries during that career and ended up distancing myself from many, while focussing on those who evolved with retailers from a product, logistics and marketing point of view. Some of these decisions were quite tough, as the people involved in these nurseries weren’t bad people and oftentimes their actual products were good but some part of the process from purchasing to delivery would repeatedly go awry, standards would drop and they would be delisted from an ever decreasing group of my preferred suppliers.

Up until relatively recently, standard practice among many nurseries was to grow plants they hoped their customer – in their mind the garden centre - would like to buy, but this was flawed reasoning of course, as the client they needed to please was one step further along the buying chain, the one who purchased that plant from the retailer - the ever knowledge-regressive garden centre customer. It’s worth pointing out again that not all were stuck in the past, many did change and began to supply what was needed by doing the reverse of what was then normal. They began each season by visiting garden centres and asking them what their customers wanted, how ordering could be made easier and how they could sell more product, to everyone’s benefit.

Nowadays, my work brings me into indirect – and often direct - contact with nurseries as part of the work I do with many retailers, from purchasing advice to the process of receiving in goods, and on through merchandising and selling, I am still very much hands-on and aware of the CC trolleys of plants arriving from various nurseries from around the island and beyond.

And the frustrating thing for me is seeing the same issues that irritated me 10 or more years ago are still there among certain growers, and it’s making them in huge danger of becoming extinct as the mechanics of progress-favouring evolution mean that those who are stronger, better and faster will drive those vexing growers to being a forgotten listing in a dusty old tradeshow catalogue or a dog-eared ‘Looking Good’ list in the back of a filing cabinet.

So what’s the problem with these endangered growers? Well, there are quite a few issues but they can be broken down into the oversimplified areas of ordering logistics, plant quality and product marketing.

CONVENIENCE

Ordering stock should be the simplest of processes at this point, given how tech-bloated we are, and webshops should be becoming the norm for growers, where the garden centre plant buyer can see the actual product being offered and just needs to insert a retail price and a quantity and press ‘buy’. They should be able to keep an eye on the purchase value and trolley count and then download the barcode information for inputting as a purchase order on the garden centres EPOS system, with the delivery arriving in a short few days. At the moment many nurseries do not make it this easy, convenient or time-saving to create orders, and these are the growers who may be left behind as garden centres consolidate the number of nurseries/suppliers they deal with based on the above mentioned convenience and speed of ordering. Those efficient suppliers will then increase their ranges to fill gaps required by garden centres and drive their competitors even further out of the market. This is not some future issue to worry about by the way; it is happening right now.

A purchaser-friendly spreadsheet is a minimum requirement these days, but it needs to be easy to understand, easy to complete and have fast-loading photos of the actual stock that will be supplied to the retailer including the colour label, coloured pot, etc.

Admittedly, webshops and the technology required need an investment in time and money but that’s perhaps where collective software buying, training and sharing of information amongst groups of growers should be focussed, with the help of funding from government bodies and consultation with plant buyers within garden centres, and other experts.

QUALITY

All too often, I have seen trolleys arriving into garden centres where up to a quarter of the stock is unsellable, where plants are too small, have been cut back before shipping, have fi nished fl owering or are just poorly grown. Surely all nursery people at this point should know what constitutes quality in a garden centre regardless of how subjective that word may be. I’m unsure if there are external guidelines anywhere as to what constitutes quality with regard to plant stock suitable for retail – some might argue that, as with beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder – but to gain any sort of quality mark, especially if you have it on a label on a plant pot, you need to be able to tell saleable from unsaleable plants.

Garden centres need to take a portion of the blame too, as by not sending poor stock back to growers or contacting them about it, they are encouraging nurseries into an ever decreasing spiral of poor quality and into an ‘Ah, it’ll do…’ mentality. Perhaps guidelines should be set for what is acceptable and what is not by those in the wholesale growing sector – or those who advise them - in order to remove the subjectivity from the issue, and then the plant pickers, stackers and labellers working in nurseries should be trained in what constitutes a good plant and what clearly does not in order that these plants don’t end up on a delivery truck in the future.

It’s only when a garden centre stops dealing with a nursery that the owner realises that something is wrong, and by then it’s too late as the plant buyer in that centre has moved to a competitor who can provide the quality they want - and they rarely come back.

LABELLING

This is another area that should be easy to get right, albeit with some investment and time, but many nurseries are still using small, generic tie-on colour labels for shrubs and perennials, and one or two ship plants with no colour label at all! This is understandable – perhaps - on very unusual plants or specimens but is unforgivable on common nursery lines. This all smacks of detachment by growers as to where plant retailing is right now and where it’s going, as when plants are not in full fl ower it is the label that sells the product, and the bigger and better those labels are the better. We can moan about it and say it shouldn’t be that way, but there is no escaping from what is required in retail right now.

Applying the best practice principles of retail is crucial, and if that label tells the end user the benefi ts of owning the product combined with an appropriate image of the plant, you can go a long way towards selling it to a customer with minimum salesperson interaction. It does require a relatively substantial outlay but for many plant categories it is an essential part of moving a business forward and in line with what the retailer requires in order to make that sale. And, that investment is better spent on the actual plant label more so than on posters, banners or other detached marketing signage that are rarely used by retailers and languish on a shelf in a store or behind a desk more often than not.

Thankfully, practically every nursery now barcodes their plants but I’ve come across issues where labels peel off after a week or two, where barcodes don’t scan, and a practice among some of still using poorly secured tie-on labels which fall off , so that till operators have an unscannable plant with no price – a major headache in retail.

All of this brings me back to the point of the necessity for a code of practice for nurseries, a list of what’s acceptable and needed - and what’s not - in the eyes of the garden centre, and therefore the consumer. This should be a relatively easy task and would just require some consultation with said garden centres, and ideally their customers, because as with life in general, communication is key. For example, how many growers contact their customers - the garden centres - and ask, ‘What are we doing wrong?’

It must be said that growers haven’t had it easy over the last few years with both the actual climate and the fi nancial one against them much of the time. The lack of cash fl ow and bad debts have also hampered expansion and investment but those excuses can’t be used for all failings. But it certainly plays a part in some, as does the psychological and physical eff ects that the last decade has played on the minds and bodies of all in the industry, which is something that needs to be discussed more openly within our sector - a topic for another time perhaps.

There are good growers in the country who don’t fall down on all of the above issues but those who comply with everything I mention are quite scarce. We have a wonderful heritage of growing in this country, some great personalities, excellent climate and a deep seated underlying love for plants. But I worry about some of the growers out there that they are being left behind. No one wants to see businesses fail, especially when much can be done to solve these issues.

Perhaps my opinion is irrelevant but maybe if you are a grower, and you’re annoyed by something I’ve written here, you might want to ask yourself, ‘Am I endangered?’ ✽

LIAM KELLY - Since

establishing Retail Services & Solutions in 2007, Liam has become one of the most infl uential people within the retail side of Irish horticulture. His knowledge of the mind set and ethos of those in this sector, combined with his problem solving ability, experience and hands-on work ethic, make him uniquely placed to off er advice and help to those who need it. Key to his success is his knowledge of purchasing, pricing and sales combined with his understanding of layout, signage and merchandising, and how they interaction of these can lead to increased sales and profi ts.

His focus is on garden centres, nurseries, hardware and DIY stores, where discretion, honesty and unbiased opinion is crucial and appreciated by those who secure his services.