Playing to strengths

Q. You recently took over the retail portion of Hawks Nursery Co. and plan to open a Stein Gardens & Gifts store in early April. Why did you decide to begin this partnership with Hawks? How will this relationship benefit you both?

A. We remain two separate stand alone businesses. We did not buy their business or their property. Hawks historically is a business that’s had two separate interests. One is a traditional garden center retail operation and the other is a landscape design and installation service.

Hawks made the decision to get out of the retail business, and we are stepping in and taking over their location in a typical landlord/tenant fashion. So we have a lease, and we’re going to operate under the lease. Hawks will continue to operate their landscape design and installation business. They’ve essentially gone from two components of their business to one, and we are adding it as a 16th location for Stein’s.

It’s a good opportunity for two companies to come together and play to their respective strengths. Ours is retail, Hawks is landscape design, and it’s going be a good growth opportunity for both companies.

Q. How did this new partnership come about?

A. The president and owner of Hawks is Joe Kresl, and Joe reached out to me in September of last year.

We spent some time getting to know each another, and the more we talked, we realized that the core values of our organizations were really aligned. So when we talked about a deal, I think we each pursued it for different reasons. First for us, the location is a very strong fit in terms of the proximity of our existing locations. There’s also a very strong population density surrounding the store, which aligned perfectly with our model for new locations. Hawks is a great name in the Milwaukee market with a strong and established clientele. We’ll be able to come in and hit the ground running. And third, the other piece that really made sense, is although we continue to be two separately owned businesses, there was an opportunity to work together in that full service landscape design business, something that Steins historically did not offer.

Q. What changes will you make to the store between now and April?

A. Actually we’re very fortunate — the store is a beautiful facility, which means changes will really be minimal. There’s really no need to come in and try and reinvent it to be something else just for the sake of change. We’ll take the next few weeks to really clean and freshen and put in our color scheme and make sure the interior resembles what we do.

We’re really looking at it more on a strategic side, so evaluating the approach to customer checkout, for example, to make sure we can process customers in a timely fashion on busy spring weekends. Right now, for our store and the volume we expect to do out of that store, there aren’t enough checkouts. We need to make sure that when that customer comes in, they have a very positive experience with us. While the look and feel of the brick and mortar isn’t going to change significantly, the whole strategic approach to how we deal with a customer in those four walls is going through a lot of scrutiny.

Q. How do you plan to retain Hawks’ customers?

A. The short answer is great products and great service. Hawks has a very loyal clientele that’s been established over decades through a culture of service, and as a result, we’re hoping to retain as many of their personnel as possible to make sure we offer continuity between the staff and that core customer. They’ve built up that relationship with the customer. The customer comes in, and they’re used to seeing certain faces and personalities. We want to make sure we continue to have those folks there so we’re not missing a beat when it comes to service and the relationship with the customer. The products speak for themselves, but we really need to make sure we secure that service component.

Q. Are you considering retaining some of the staff who used to work at Hawks?

A. The store manager will be someone from Stein Gardens & Gifts who knows our policies, procedures and approach to running the overall business, but the broader staff we fully intend on carrying over from Hawks to Steins.

Q. What do you think has contributed to your continued success in tough economic times?

A. I would start by saying, despite our size, we face the same challenges as every other independent. 2012 brought one of the most severe droughts in Wisconsin’s history. I always tell people if you want to have some fun, try selling live goods in communities that impose water restrictions. But we’ve dealt with these challenges in really a couple ways.

It really comes back to a commitment to the customer. A lot of businesses talk about that, but I think few actually believe it and act on it. So everything we do is about the customer, which in turn creates loyalty and good will. So it’s that loyalty and good will that becomes pretty important when you’re dealing with today’s broader business and economic challenges. But the second thing we’ve done over the past few years is we’ve focused on efficiency.

And when I say efficiency I mean efficiency in absolutely everything we do. From inventory and store staffing models to advertising to how we communicate internally, in every non-customer facing part of our business we are laser focused on efficiency, because efficiency leads to cost savings, and cost savings allows us to withstand the challenges of the last few years.

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