Warehouse plan for its suppliers
draws plenty of response
Our story last Newsletter about the Warehouse’s plans to cut its supplier
numbers by half and asking the remainder to reduce prices by 10 percent, drew a
strong response from readers. We didn’t know there was such depth of feeling
out there.
Our purpose in running the Warehouse story was not to criticise that company,
but simply to point out that, because the Warehouse carries a lot of garden
products, our industry would be hurt by its new policy.
No comment yet
We did ask the Warehouse to comment on how its new supplier policies might
affect garden product suppliers. Warehouse plant buyer Stephen Dunshea said he
was not able to comment specifically on the moves which had required supplier
responses by March 1.
These will be collated and then we’ll hear back, he said.
The calls I’ve received from suppliers indicate most are looking at the bigger
picture and are prepared to work through the situation.
We have to do things better and this strategy is just part and parcel of doing
that.
For our Warehouse story and some of your comments, click on Comm Hort Magazine
then the We Said -- You Said button.
If you’d like to read more on this subject see Mass Marketers Here to Stay at
the bottom of this news column.
Mass Marketers are here to stay
Further to our Warehouse story above . . .
We believe cut-price mass-marketers, be they the Warehouse or any of a dozen
others, will be a fact of life for the foreseeable future and are going to
continue to hurt traditional businesses competing with them.
We also believe, however, that like everything else, they will have their day.
Already, many have come off their peak.
In Australia, Bunnings, which the traditional garden trade in Aus blames for
many of its troubles, is reportedly struggling with garden sales.
At the recent Aussie NGIA Conference, nursery consultant John Stanley said in
Britain big box chain Tesco is only accepting nursery stock into its new stores
on a consignment basis for sale or return and the grower is to be responsible
for looking after it while in the stores.
John said Wal-Mart in the US was planning to swap to a system where it pays for
stock only as or after it is scanned over its checkouts.
These moves seem to be an admission by the boxes that they are not good at
looking after nursery stock in their stores and they’re solving their problems
of excessive waste by shifting the burden back to their suppliers.
Meanwhile in NZ, Vegfed President, Brian Gargiulo, writing in Grower magazine
says there are rumours the giant cut-price European Aldi chain may set up in NZ,
as may Wal-Mart. These are huge companies. Wal-Mart has a turnover of $US 270
billion, three times our national GDP. It has 1.5 million employees and is
opening stores at the rate of 240 per year.
Brian Gargiulo tells his Vegfed members, Like it or hate it, internationalism is
a fact of life and you ignore the new standards and values that this process
sets at your peril.
“When you deal with these companies, or growers who supply them, you have to
play by their rules. You have to learn how they think, what their values are
because they are different. They don’t necessarily act as we do . . . they
might have local management at an operating level but those managers will be
working to values set overseas and expectations that are different to those we
have come to regard as normal.
That’s not a message of hope, we know, but it is probably the truth.
COMMHORT THIS MONTH
Our March Commercial Horticulture Magazine also features:
Personality of the Month 10 years ago David Fletcher decided he’d
had enough of being a builder, bought Moores Valley Nursery and leapt into
horticulture.
A look at Flora ‘n’ Flora (sic) garden centre in Dannevirke and its
seedling-eating rabbit.
Wairere Nursery succulents supreme. Two seafarers, home from the sea,
started this specialist nursery deep in the Waitakeres
What’s hot across the Tasman reports by Demelza Watts of Nga
Rakau Nursery on seed trials she visited in Melbourne
Kentia.co.nz that’s the simple name for a new kentia specialist nursery
set up on the outskirts of Whangarei
Gardening and the elderly reports of UK research and local experience of
the changing wants and needs of the older gardener
Nursery Consultants we profile four specialist consulting companies and
the special services they offer
Understanding how plants really work the first in a new series by
botanist Fiona Eadie and the basics of what plants are.
. . . and much more.
If you’d like to subscribe to CommHort, just click the Comm Hort Magazine
button above.
Graeme Platt vents his feelings
on restrictions on new plant imports
March Comm Hort carries a Letter to the Editor from plantsman Graeme Platt of
the NZ Botanical Institute, Albany. Here are some extracts:
After reading the report on Peter Cave’s Bank’s Lecture in the February 2005
edition in Commercial Horticulture (in which Peter argued for the rights of New
Zealanders to import new plants) I find it very difficult to understand how
Peter is able retain his normal polite demeanor when discussing the useless
free-loading gits at MAF who have so deviously empowered themselves with the
authority to stifle the life out of our industry and jeopardise the economic
future of all New Zealanders . .
The selection and development of crops from nature is not only a fundamental
human right, it is the very foundation stone of human civilization.
Every tree, plant, animal, fungi and fish that has ever been domesticated was
the fruitful vision of an individual who first recognised its potential to
provide food, fibre, fuel, medication, building materials, dyes and oils, to
sustain himself and his family. These domesticated plants and animals today
collectively provide for the sustenance of all humanity.
When they outlaw growing trees only outlaws will grow them. When they outlaw the
harvesting of trees only outlaws will harvest them. When they outlaw the
introduction and development of new trees only outlaws will introduce and
develop new trees. When they outlaw burning firewood only outlaws will burn
firewood . . .
There’s more from Graeme, page 12 March Comm Hort
Mike Geenty
The industry was saddened to learn of the passing, on Feb 26, of respected
plantsman Mike Geenty. 200 people attended the funeral, held at Hamilton
Gardens, Mike’s workplace for 28 years.
A full obituary will be in Comm Hort April issue
Would you like to exhibit at GLEE
this year?
Expressions of interest are being sought from companies to be part of a proposed
New Zealand stand at the big GLEE garden and leisure show in Birmingham UK
September 18-20 this year.
The show is expected to draw about 28,000 visitors from around the world. There
will be 1700 exhibitors from 70 countries.
Export development consultant, Joy Lamb, of NZ Origin Ltd, would organise a
jointly funded stand if NZ companies are interested and help co-ordinate their
efforts.
If you’re interested, send a note to joy@nzorigin.co.nz
Temporary reprieve on HSNO
compliance
The ERMA has posted on its website a self-declaration form enabling people to
declare themselves Transitional Approved Handlers of hazardous substances. This
follows the introduction of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act,
which came into effect on 1 January 2005 and covers agrichemicals, sprays,
pesticides etc, how they’re bought, transported, used, stored, and disposed of
and carries big penalties.
For more on what the Act means to the nursery industry, click on Comm Hort
Magazine, then Articles
Spring Trade Day 17 August
All previous Trade Day exhibitors will automatically be contacted when bookings
open for Auckland August 17 Spring Trade Day. If you’d like to be an
exhibitor, but haven’t exhibited before, please register your interest by
sending an email to us: refpub@nursery.net.nz
Grower seminars
Both members and non-members of the NGIA are welcome to attend the Nursery
Development Programme Seminars being run by the NGIA’s Ornamental Growers
Sector Group in April.
The day-long seminars are scheduled for Auckland on Tuesday April 19; Palmerston
North on Wednesday April 20; and Christchurch on Thursday April 21.
Topics to be covered include improving production yields through better hygiene;
the latest on media and nutrition practices, and how to improve customer
relationships and satisfaction.
Contact Kimberley Barr at the NGIA for more info. Ph 04 918-3511
Next year it’s all on in
Tasmania
Next year, a joint Australia-New Zealand conference is scheduled for Tasmania,
sandwiched between the Melbourne Flower Show and Easter. <br>
Registration opens on Sunday evening 9 April and the conference goes through
until Wednesday 12 April. You could be home on the Thursday, then it’s Good
Friday.
More detail will soon be available on the conference programme. There is also to
be a package deal available which will include a trip to the Melbourne Flower
Show
Aussie Conference
The Australian nursery trade met in Fremantle, Western Australia, in the week of
March 12 for their annual conference. Called the Business Skills Summit 2005, it
certainly provided plenty of information and help for business managers and
owners as 25 specialist presenters held workshops and delivered papers.
The handful of Kiwis who made the trip from NZ (and there were several
Aus-domiciled Kiwis on hand as well) included John Phillips of Greymouth
Nurseries, Des Snell of Commercial Horticulture and the NGIA’s president Ross
Bayliss, ceo Alan Criglington, and development manager Bob Wynyard, who was also
judge of the Aus GC of the Year competition.
The Australian garden trade has been struggling over the past few years. Its
problems are virtually the same as faced by the trade in NZ (box stores,
changing consumer demographics and lifestyles, competing leisure activities),
but it has severe government imposed water restrictions to contend with as well
in many parts of the country.
To a Kiwi, it also appears more heavily shackled by regulation and red tape.
Many of the conference speakers and papers were about what you have to do to
comply with various regulations or codes of practice and much of this work would
not help a company’s bottom line. <br>
We’ll be reporting on the conference in more detail in coming issues of Comm
Hort.
Zenith closes its doors
Neville Chun’s Lower Hutt Zenith Garden Centre has closed its doors after 72
years as a family business. We’ll have more on this in April Comm Hort.
Market uneven, but Summer better
than usual
Retailers in some parts of New Zealand report quieter trading since Christmas
but demand is uneven.
In Christchurch trading has been steady with the usual drought conditions
allayed thanks to good December rains.
Tree and shrub nurseries say they’re poised for a good Autumn as soon as it
cools and there’s some rain - which was promised for Easter.
Retailers were in a reasonably buoyant mood at Auckland Trade Day too.
One North Island retailer notes that Summer brings a raft of leisure activities
which can adversely affect weekend custom.
Trade Day great stock, bigger
grades
Superb stock quality was on display at Autumn Trade Day in Auckland on March 2,
and there also seemed to be a trend toward bigger grades, colour and foliage.
Although there were more than 100 stands (including 48 nurseries), numbers were
slightly down this year, reflecting a tightening in the industry at large,
particularly in the gift line supply area.
We have a full report with pics in March Comm Hort and also at this site. Click
the Trade Day button, then Reviews
We Said, You Said . . .
Click on link below to read readership responses to the February Email
Newsletter and the following article:
Warehouse sends out a shock
There was a nasty shock for many companies in late January when the Warehouse
announced it was cutting its 3000 supplier numbers by half.
Furthermore, those remaining were summoned to meetings, reported the NZ Herald,
and asked to drop their prices by 10 percent, improve quality and delivery. The
policy is also to be implemented in Australia.
One supplier said: It’s been put down as non-negotiable. We’ve been told we
have to reply by March 1.” There is a lot of garden-related product sold
through the Warehouse, greenlife included, so presumably many companies in our
trade will be hurt. Said one commentator: There’s no way the nursery industry
can sustain a 10 per cent price cut – margins are just too tight already. Will
the other mass-marketers follow the Warehouse lead with their suppliers? One to
do so almost immediately was stationery retailer Paper Plus, but another,
Farmers said it would not. It seems unlikely however that any mass-marketer
would be happy long-term with its suppliers selling to rivals at 10 percent
less.
So, at a time when the nursery trade should be pushing for higher prices for its
products, the price pressures look to be moving the other way.
Click here to view reader response
Above is a synopsis of articles printed in one issue of Commercial Horticulture - Magazine of the Nursery Industry.
For information on Commercial Horticulture, including subscribing, please visit the Comm Hort Feature Page.