Tips from the Top

Photo © Glover Nursery

The spring season may still be a few months away, but the key to a profitable spring lays in the slow winter months. 

It’s all about preparation and communication. 

We talked to some of Garden Center magazine’s 2023 Top 100 Independent Garden Centers to get their top tips for surviving — and thriving — through spring. 

It’s the little things 

Ryan Glover is operations manager at Glover Nursery in West Jordan, Utah, outside Salt Lake City (#39 on the Top 100 list). 

The business prepares for spring from November through February, focusing on “clearing the bottlenecks and hang-ups that really cause a lot of the stress in the springtime for us,” he says — things like pre-pricing and equipment maintenance. 

“Just trying to stay ahead of it as much as possible has really helped us out a lot rather than being so reactionary to things,” he adds. 

That means completing projects that may seem small but offer big rewards, like paving pathways to help the staff that’s using more forklifts and golf carts than in the past.

Another example: The IGC previously only had one entrance for trucks to make deliveries, meaning additional trucks had to park on the street — creating additional stress for staff. 

So, the team cleared a spot on its property and paved an extra 12 to 15 feet for additional trucks to pull over to the side. 

“That was a massive improvement. That was just a little thing,” Glover says. “Nobody else would even really notice it, but for us, it took so much stress off everybody.” 

The IGC is also being more intentional about what it sells and has even stopped selling products, even if they’re profitable, if they’re not driving the business. Instead, it focuses on optimizing the physical space those products once used to merchandise its most profitable, best-selling products. 

Plus, the business is space-limited at its location, so “the only way to grow is to eliminate things that are not performing well,” Glover says. 

“Over the years, we’ve kind of just accumulated all these different products and things that we make money on but isn’t worth the area it takes up,” he adds. “This year, we’re eliminating over half of our bulk products that we sell to make room for parking.”

Prepare your staff 

East Coast Garden Center in Millsboro, Delaware, (#98 on the Top 100 list) focuses on its staff, say garden center manager Katie Short and co-owner Chris Cordrey. 

The garden center has 200 employees between its garden center and landscape divisions, and it works hard to keep them busy though the winter. 

“We try to keep good people over the winter, so we create winter work,” Short says. “Anything from power washing to painting to re-stoning areas in the garden center, any kind of benches that need replaced, fixed up. We’re trying to go in with a critical eye and seeing any kind of, we call it broken windows, and trying to clean those things up before the spring.” 

Other winter work includes switching paths from stone to concrete to improve the customer experience and ensuring signage is prepared and looking good. 

Keeping staff over the winter also helps the garden center be better prepared for the spring. 

“It hurts on the payroll during the winter, but it also gives us a much better staff in the spring, and now instead of hiring when that need comes, we’re constantly hiring,” Cordrey says. 

The business has a talent acquisition specialist on staff, it hosts a job fair as early as February and it’s always interviewing people. 

“We’re constantly looking for people and getting good people, in in advance where years ago, we might not have enough people and we’re running around,” Cordrey says. “Even if we don’t have an immediate need, we’re interviewing and having people in the pipeline in order to make sure we have the best staff possible.” 

One new concept the business is exploring is pre-selling. It’s utilizing its online store more than in the past. The business is also basing more of its operations on data and trying to extend its spring season to keep customers coming in earlier and later to try to spread out the rush. 

“We did a lot of things from our gut before, but we’re doing a lot more tracking of numbers: what we sold over the last years, what our budgets are for different things,” Cordrey says. 

The company has also improved its training efforts, with company-wide training and selected training for specific positions, including both in-house training and specific product training from sales representatives. 

“We do a lot more pre-planning than we ever have in the past. So, we’re thinking about next year way before we ever did in earlier years,” Cordrey says. “Pre-planning is the word I would say over and over, and just trying not to shoot from the hip when the spring comes.” 

Know your weather 

Sheridan Nurseries (#18 on the Top 100 list) has eight locations in Ontario, Canada: seven open year-round, and one open from April through December. 

The start of the spring season is extremely weather dependent — and staff must be ready to go whenever the weather drives people to stores, says director of marketing Victoria Mulvale. 

That means hiring staff early, making sure staff is trained on guest service expectations and product knowledge, deciding where product is going within stores with solid merchandising plans and transitioning benches right after Christmas so the stores are ready to receive product as soon as the weather changes. 

“Where we are in Ontario, the weather could change any time from March until May. We don’t know, but we have to be ready because there’s pent-up anticipation around here of the seasonal shift,” Mulvale says. “As soon as the weather starts turning, people are out looking for stuff, so we need to make sure that our benches are ready. As soon as product can viably survive, we can have it on our benches and ready to sell and not be scrambling trying to set up benches on that first nice day.” 

Spring top-sellers include boxwood, roses and patio furniture. The business’ multiple locations rely on “leaders of excellence” who coordinate efforts, from product knowledge materials and training events to merchandising and marketing. “And communication, communication, communication: lots and lots of communication to make sure that everyone is aware of what’s going on, and there’s no unanswered questions,” Mulvale adds. 

Photo © Van Putte Gardens

It’s a family 

Kyle Van Putte, CEO and president of Van Putte Gardens (#84 on the Top 100 list) in Rochester, New York, hates playing catch-up.

“I think the first thing that comes to mind would be preparedness, and schedule, and utilizing right now, December and January, to set yourself up for a successful spring,” he says. “You can kind of anticipate what’s going to happen that first week of May, or that fourth week of May, or the third week of June.”

A big part of surviving the spring season is reminding his staff that they’re a family — and everyone loves a family meal, with the business hosting “pizza Fridays” or “hotdog Saturdays” for staff. 

“This is a family business,” Van Putte says. “We are in the middle of our busiest part of the year, and you’re part of the family.” 

Van Putte knows it’s easier for owners and executives to get through the spring season, since many of them have already been through multiple springs and also “have a little bit more responsibility or skin in the game.” 

“When you got a two-year veteran on the cash register working a 55-hour week, yeah, it gets very tiring, and they’re probably thinking to themselves, ‘What did I get myself into?’” he says. “What we do in those cases is we just try to communicate.” 

That means managers or executives coaching employees through it — even just a quick conversation in the break room letting them know “I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.” 

“This pace will not last forever,” Van Putte says. “We’re all going to work together to get through it.” 

Although the spring season can be chaotic, our top IGCs say it’s important to remember what all that chaos means for the business. 

“I’m kind of different. I like spring,” Glover says. “To me, it’s when you make all your money. To me, it’s something to look forward to. Yeah, it’s a lot of work and stressful, but that’s the business.”

Emily Mills is associate editor of Garden Center magazine. Contact her at emills@gie.net.