Meshing Together
International Garden Products' (IGP) nine business units are
collaborating to enhance sales and promotion effortsby MATT HOPKINS, Managing Editor
Greenhouse GrowerWHEN it comes to International Garden Products (IGP) and its nine business units, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Not only do they offer a wide range of products - including annuals, bulbs, roses, perennials, seed, and woody ornamentals - IGP companies work together to help their customers achieve higher sales through improved marketing and merchandising programs, as well as increase profitability through improved operational efficiencies, says IGP chairman and president Jack Hesse.
With four more acquisitions in 2000, IGP companies now include Iseli Nursery, Skagit Gardens, Weeks Roses, Langeveld International, Thompson & Morgan, Vandenberg Bulb Co., Briggs Nursery, Consolidated Nursery LLC, and Ridge Manor Nurseries.
"We have very knowledgeable people at our businesses," Hesse says. "By teaming the expertise of our primary producers with the knowledge of our regional nurseries and their efficiencies of distribution, we can combine the highest quality products with consultative selling and marketing programs and offer customers products on a frequent basis during the peak selling season."
Teaming Up On Sales
IGP is constantly exploring ways to take advantage of its diversified business units. This often takes the form of cross-selling, Hesse says. For instance. Weeks Roses, one of the world's premiere bare root rose producers, and Ridge Manor Nurseries, a regional nursery in Madison, OH, are working together from both sales and production standpoints to supply garden centers with finished potted roses.
"They're available in 'leaf & bud' form, as well as bare root form when needed," Hesse says. "The salespeople are working as a team to supply quality roses and service the customer in the most effective manner."
Weeks' salespeople provide the much-needed rose knowledge, while the sales staff at Ridge Manor offers insight into its regional garden center customers, Hesse says. "This combination provides customers with quality service and information to help make them more successful," he says. "In addition, the salespeople are offering a complete marketing program to garden centers, including point-of-sale information.
'We've Only Just Begun'
International Garden Products (IGP) is just getting started with its overall marketing plan, says IGP vice president of sales and marketing Lee Wilkins. "We have just begunour marketing communications strategy" he says. "The 2001 spring Season will be the first for our new branding and marketing programs."
Thompson & Morgan, for instance, is unveiling five new display units this year. One of the displays, the Kew Royal Botanical Garden Collection, was developed in conjunction with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, and represents a range of rare and unusual seeds chosen from around the world. The display units require limited space and have been created especially for U.S. garden centers and designed to complement existing Thompson & Morgan displays.
Another IGP company, Langeveld International, will pick up where it left off last year with the successful launchof its mobile display carts and point-of-purchase materials. The campaign supported its garden center customers and helped boost retail sales of bulbs in fall 2000.
The two-sided promotional carts have been designed for multiple uses in the garden center. They can serve as dump displays, bulk bins of individual varieties or packages of bulbs, and a forcing center.
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