Independents' Day

The hue and cry going up from the independent garden centers at the news Monrovia Nursery was considering selling to Home Depot at the request of their bankers sent shockwaves throughout the IGC Universe.

Josh Schneider

Published March 28, 2011
Josh Schneider The hue and cry going up from independent garden centers at the news Monrovia Nursery was considering selling to Home Depot at the request of their bankers sent shockwaves throughout the IGC Universe. The financiers apparently didn’t see the political firestorm brewing when they suggested the big boxes would be a solution to the excess inventory problem Monrovia was facing.

“With indie orders down, why not use other channels?” they seem to have reasoned. When Monrovia asked its garden center clients to make up the difference in additional orders, it at least gave independents the opportunity to take more product and help out a company that was built around the independent garden center distribution channel. As it turned out, even with the combined western Home Depot orders and the additional commitments made by independent garden centers, Monrovia still fell short of its $20 million goal for sales.

Given the economy, that result is hardly a surprise. Monrovia has promised to keep its well-known brand out of Home Depot and only ship plants in black pots with no identifying information that could link the plants back and sully the brand. Many independents were not at all interested in how or why, only saying that Monrovia was finally “selling out” to the box stores, just like they perceived some other plant companies to have done in the past.

 


The blame game
Do the independents suffer from a victim mentality? The more I considered the situation, the more it seemed like a lot of indies were kicking Monrovia while they were down. When you consider the realities of the nursery business, it becomes clear why companies like Monrovia can sometimes seem insular. They have to plan and spend on their production years in advance of it hitting the market, waiting to sell the plants on the premise the market conditions would still be strong.

How could they have been expected to know or forsee the collapse of the housing market? Most of the best and brightest in the fields of politics and business completely missed the mortgage meltdown.

How much deference does Monrovia deserve? Ten years ago when I owned a garden center in Central Illinois, my Monrovia experience was a good one. My salesperson was attentive and focused on my needs. She was careful to suggest plants that would be reliable and always gave me considered advice on categories about which I wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable as she was. I’ve heard similar stories from many other retailers.

Monrovia has been ahead of the curve in so many ways—from branding and marketing to websites and environmentally-responsible production practices. They’ve spent millions of dollars advertising in high-profile media promoting their exclusive varieties as well as their brand—available only through independents.

Their packaging and tagging facilitated better margins. They were the first to offer in-store merchandising systems to independents, providing desperately needed help in improving the presentation of nursery products at retail. According to my count on their website, they’ve introduced 300-plus new varieties of plants exclusively—helping independents stay relevant with what’s new and interesting.


There's more
They’ve reached out to landscape architects and designers to educate them on new varieties, helping create pull-through demand on multiple levels. They’ve kept their brand out of the box stores, when it’s likely they could have sold more plants by dealing with both boxes and indies.

I’m shocked that many seem to believe that the people driving the ship of Monrovia should—when seeing an iceberg ahead—increase speed rather than slowing down and adjusting course to avoid disaster. Gunning for your most reliable allies doesn’t seem like a winning strategy, but, then, let’s face it: We independents have often mistaken tactics for a strategy.


Josh Schneider is a founding partner of Cultivaris, a hort consulting firm. E-mail Josh at josh@cultivaris.com.

 

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