Grower Expands in Big Way With Oregon Acquisition

Capitalizing on San Diego County’s building boom, Springtime Growers’ wholesale nursery grew into prominence in the 1980s by selling trees and shrubs to landscapers of commercial and residential developments. Later, Springtime Growers built upon that foundation by stocking retail nurseries, too.

Last week, Springtime made its biggest expansion ever, paying $11 million to acquire Oregon Garden Products of Hillsboro, Ore., the state’s largest wholesale grower and a major supplier of retail nurseries in the Midwest and the East. Last year, Oregon Garden Products posted revenues in excess of $14 million.

Oregon Garden Products, with a 1,100-acre farm 20 miles west of Portland, allows Springtime to expand its product line and to sell goods to customers in colder climate, industry experts said.

“They’ll have the Northwest material which they can now ship to the Eastern and Midwestern markets,” said Harold Young, editor of the Pacific Coast Nurseryman, a trade publication circulated in Western and Sun Belt states. “From an acquisition standpoint they increase their product base . . . conifers and stuff that we don’t even know about down here. They’re in a position to go great guns.”

The combined revenues of Springtime Growers and Oregon Garden Products now makes parent company Springtime Inc. of San Diego one of the nation’s five largest wholesale growers, with annual sales in excess of $32 million. There are more than 33,000 U.S. wholesale growing nurseries competing for a share of the $4.2-billion annual wholesale market.

Founded in 1980, Springtime grows more than 600 varieties of trees, shrubs and vines on nearly 400 acres of farms in Del Mar, Miramar and Phoenix. Springtime has been supplying retail and landscape nurseries in California, Nevada and Arizona. Last year, Springtime posted revenues of $18.7 million, up from $18.4 million in 1988 and $14.2 million in 1987.

According to Tom Ewing, Springtime’s president, the acquisition of Oregon Garden Products enables the company to better supply the growing number of regional and national chain stores that are buying plant products.

The emergence of large retailers--such as Home Club, K mart, Builders Square, Wal-Mart and Sun Belt Nurseries--that demand substantial quantities and varieties of plants has developed a need for multi-product, service-oriented producers, according to industry experts.

“These regional or national retailers want to get their business taken care of with one call,” Ewing said. “But our industry is a fragmented one, with many growers specializing in certain types of products. There are many large distributors but very few large players on the supplier side of this business. We plan to fulfill this need.”

Establishing strong positions in both the retail and landscape business also helps Springtime weather bad times.

“For example, the Phoenix developer market has been down lately and, as a result, we’ve had a decline in landscape business, but our retail has been real strong,” Ewing said. “It helps us offset a low time in one area.” Landscape business accounted for 38% of Springtime’s 1989 revenues. Retail contributed 62% of the company’s sales.

Springtime now grows on 300 acres in Del Mar, 40 acres in Phoenix and 40 acres in Miramar. Over the next five years, Springtime plans to moves its Del Mar operations to an expanded Miramar site, where it leases the property from the federal government.

According to Springtime spokesman Dennis Bahen, the company is moving its operation because of “housing encroachment (in Del Mar) and a chance to reduce operational costs. It’s cheaper leasing land from the government.”

After serving as president of Nurseryland Garden Centers, a successful lawn and garden products chain, McKenzie Cook, 52, founded Springtime in October 1980. During Cook’s five-year tenure at Nurseryland, the chain expanded from four to 25 stores.

Cook, now Springtime’s chief executive officer, left the successful chain because he recognized a need for a major wholesale supplier in fast-growing San Diego County, Ewing said.

“There were a couple of major wholesalers up north, but they had their hands full supplying Orange County, which as you know had a boom of their own,” said Ewing, 40. “No one was really addressing the fast-growing market in San Diego.”

With $3 million money raised from limited partners, McKenzie and Ewing launched Springtime with 20 acres in Del Mar.

“We started supplying landscape contractors and rode on their backs until we got the retail side going,” Ewing said. “We certainly had no idea we would grow this big.”