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 In 1968, Alan and Catherine Kraemer canned 3,000 liners on a half acre and started their first nursery. “Growing ornamental and woody shrubs looked like a good opportunity, since the industry was very small at the time,” Alan said.
Fast forward to 2011. The nursery has grown to six farms totaling more than 850 acres with 67 acres under cover and 42 dock spaces.
Inventory turns, margins, discounts and ad dates were not standard Kraemer’s Nursery vocabulary in the early days. In 2004, the nursery’s larger retail customers began requesting vendors to track, maintain and replenish inventory. Suppliers became responsible for the sales and profitability of the stores.
Being a small company with limited number-crunching capacity, Alan and Paul Kraemer, father and son owners of Kraemer’s Nursery, had the foresight to understand that their expertise lay in growing plants. Faced with the new requirements, Kraemer’s partnered with Robin Cross, an economist at Oregon State University.
Based on simple supply and demand principles and using a complex math algorithm, Cross developed a software program placing season-appropriate plants to support retailer sales—factoring in weather, advertising and bench space to optimize replenishment rates.
“It keeps the stores full of what they need, when they need it,” Alan said.
A joint project between Kraemer’s Nursery, OSU and Green Market Systems (GMS) went live in 2009. GMS’ publicly available software program provides small nurseries with big-business market insight. Nurseries using the program to guide their replenishment rates have boosted sales to their customers.
GMS has saved Kraemer’s money by reducing product over-shipments, shrink and buy back of unsold plants. The system has allowed Kraemer’s to stay ahead of the curve by analyzing what consumers are buying when and by forecasting trends. Carrying more than 500 varieties at any given time, Kraemer’s product mix continually evolves.
“What will the consumer think of our product?” said Barry Gregory, vice president of sales and marketing at Kraemer’s. “This important question is taken into account on all new product decisions, which in turn affects our overall product mix.”
Kraemer’s sells woody and ornamental flowering shrubs, broadleaf evergreens, grasses, perennials, conifers, roses, small fruits, Japanese maples and deciduous trees.
Tuning in
Inventory innovation is one dimension of creating success at Kraemer’s Nursery. Listening is another major component.
“We really try to focus on the end consumer,” Gregory said. “Our account managers visit retail locations weekly and report on what buyers and their customers are saying. We offer proactive solutions for sell-through ideas and follow through on their suggestions and feedback.”
Listening, coupled with data-driven decision making, has resulted in moving from traditional landscape shrubs to flowering and colorful “impulse” retail-ready products. In 2010, Kraemer’s added more than 30 new flowering varieties to its product line-up.
Kraemer’s also devotes about 2 acres for research and development. The R&D team aggressively trials more than 50 new plant varieties alongside fertilizer, herbicide, eco-containers and greenhouse coverings.
(L-R) Paul Kraemer, co-owner; Alan Kraemer, co-owner; Dave Sabalka, CEO; Dawn Hummel, new product development and marketing coordinator; and Barry Gregory, vice president of sales.
Automation efficiencies
Innovation doesn’t stop in sales and marketing. By continually evolving and improving automation, the nursery’s labor force does not incur a high seasonal influx. Fifteen automated potting machines—seven Javos, five carousels and three inline units—coupled with continuous mixing systems, keep canning lines moving at a fast clip. Tractors pull plant carts through eight watering tunnels, ensuring even coverage. On larger crops, Kraemer’s uses mechanical pruning techniques guaranteeing size uniformity for racking efficiency.
Kraemer’s recirculates water via six on-site ponds through gravity and pump stations. Alan felt there had to be a better water management system to save even more water. He found one at the 2003 Farwest tradeshow in Portland, Ore., in the form of a wireless watering station.
The two Toro Sitepro systems installed in 2006 work by entering station run times on the controller computer, which sends a wireless signal to a field satellite. A satellite signal energizes the solenoid valve through buried wires for predetermined run times. The Toro automatically calculates flow and valve sequencing based on data entered into its software program.
Automation allows one person to make daily changes to run time–without recalculating flow and valve sequences–covering all farms from one location. The system improves water usage efficiency by easily allowing programming and run time changes from remote PCs and handheld radios real-time.
Putting all these tools together enables Kraemer’s to be a successful nursery.
For more: Kraemer’s Nursery, www.kraemersnursery.com. Green Market Systems, www.gms.com.
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