On The Road: To Skinners Nursery of Orlando

In the nursery industry, this trend has resulted in the development of re-wholesalers or horticultural distribution centers. These are companies that tend to focus their efforts on purchasing plant material from a wide range of growers and then selling it to landscape professionals. In addition, re-wholesalers may grow some of their own material, although this tends to represent a smaller portion of total sales.

Skinners Nursery is one such re-wholesaler, although the company was originally founded in 1975 as a grower of container trees and shrubs. The last few years have seen the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company expand its presence throughout the southeastern U.S. with the opening of locations in Jacksonville, Hilton Head, S.C., Houston and now Orlando.

Joey Waters, general manager for Orlando distribution, Skinners Nursery, Orlando, Fla., said landscape contractors in the Orlando area have responded well to Skinners’ entry into the market this year. "Our target customer is really the small to mid-size contractor because those are the people who we can really serve," Waters explained. "The larger contractors are more likely to order directly from a grower because they order in large enough quantities to fill a truck for delivery."

Currently, Waters estimated that 60 percent of the business done out of the 4-acre yard is orders that contractors pick up themselves, with 30 percent being delivered to a contractor or a job site. "We’re a service business and we figure out how to do what our customers want," he related, noting that he expects to see the number of delivery sales increase as much as 10 percent as contractors get more familiar and more comfortable with Skinners Nursery and the re-wholesaler concept in general.

Part of the popularity of re-wholesalers is that they often help contractors deal with the shortage of quality plant material, although Waters said this shortage is a challenge for re-wholesalers as well. "The nursery shortage is real, and the shortage of quality material is even worse," he observed. "It doesn’t matter if you have all the money in the world, if the plants aren’t out there, then they aren’t out there."

But these re-wholesalers do offer contractors a lot to choose from. Waters said he stocks as many as 225 different plant varieties at any given time (including materials of different sizes), and he expects that number to climb as high as 250 with increased awareness of market demands.

"Generally, we have wood ornamentals from 3 to 7 gallons and 1-gallon groundcovers and grasses," he explained, while also pointing out the row of 30+ foot-tall palm trees lined up in one corner of the facility.

Part of the ripple effect stemming from the general shortage has been the diminished availability of higher quality and larger plants. "A lot of plants are being sold sooner than they would have if there was greater availability," Waters explained. "So some materials that contractors want a 4-inch version of may only be available in 3½ inches."

In the last few years, the goal of functioning as a one-stop shop for contractors has led some re-wholesalers to broaden their product line into areas such as irrigation, hardscapes or fertilizers. Skinners hasn’t taken that approach yet, but Waters sees the potential for doing so down the road. In addition, Waters expects to see more Skinners Nursery locations show up – as many as 6 more by 2004.

With his background including some time spent at Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, Waters said Lowe’s and other mass merchandisers are "always talking about an initiative to go after more contractor business," but he doesn’t see those companies being able to satisfy professional landscape contractors. "Not unless they build a location like this where they can keep up to 25 percent of their plants under shade and they have the resources to go out and get good varieties of 1-gallon Mexican heather when they need it," he noted. Otherwise, these stores are too limited by the size of their stores, the quantity of plants they can stock, the higher prices they charge and the lack of appropriate staffing."