Growers looking for ways to extend sales past the usual spring rush should take note of Iwasaki Brothers. The Hillsboro, Ore., company has been named a GMPRO Innovator for creating late-year income by growing specialized products for its specialized customer base.

General manager Jim Iwasaki, grandson of Billy Iwasaki, who founded the business in 1912, said the company has looked for ways to extend sales since it was converted completely to greenhouse production in the late 1960s.

"It wasn't long ago that you had Memorial Day and that was it. Your season was over," Iwasaki said. "That made finding good labor difficult because it was highly seasonal."

While the sales window for bedding plants has stretched later into the year, due primarily to changing consumer-buying habits, it's still critical to generate cash flow during other seasons.

One season-extending product for Iwasaki Brothers is mixed containers, which are sold through the summer. Retailers continue to buy these 8- to 20-inch containers later into the season because they are impulse items for their customers. Iwasaki Brothers charges $3.50-$100 for the mixed planters.

"My uncles and dad wonder who would pay that kind of money for these planters," Iwasaki said. "But their reference point is from a different time. People have more disposable income today and we should be getting fair market prices. Automobile prices have gone up with the times, why can't ours?"

Excess outlets no more

For combination planters, Iwasaki mixes annuals with trailing and upright perennials to create a full, mature finished appearance. No longer are planters looked at as a way of using overgrown plants that didn't sell.

"We've done mixed planters for a long time, but it was primarily a salvage operation," Iwasaki said. "We would plant them with excess flats at the end of the season or other plants destined for the dump. Now the planters aren't salvage, but an important part of our business."

Each year, Iwasaki Brothers sells 400-600 large mixed planters to The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club in Aloha, Ore., for use in August during the Fred Meyer Challenge professional golf tournament. The company delivers the plants, maintains them and removes them after the tournament is over.

"A few years ago we started maintaining the plants ourselves because they weren't looking good all the way through (the tournament). It's fortunate the tournament is in August or we wouldn't have time to do it," Iwasaki said.

Planters removed from the tournament can be cleaned up, refurbished or replanted and then sold. Most of the plants are salvageable, he said.

High-end winter sales

Iwasaki Brothers creates winter sales by selling poinsettias and wreaths. But these products are sold to a different customer base than Iwasaki's spring bedding plants.

Most of Iwasaki's annuals and perennials are sold through mass-market outlets. But the company wants higher profit margins for poinsettias than chain stores provide. Iwasaki Brothers grows higher-end poinsettias in 6-, 8- and 10-inch containers with decorative pot covers and sells them to specialty markets.

One market is local fund-raising organizations. Members of 40 school and civic groups sell poinsettias and wreaths, often door to door, and place their orders with Iwasaki Brothers.

"It's a larger market than what you would think. One school sold $40,000 worth of product, and that's a one-stop delivery for us," Iwasaki said.

Iwasaki Brothers also provides poinsettias to the six Nordstrom department stores in Oregon. It was the grower's quality that brought in the account, Iwasaki said.

"People from Nordstrom went out and toured growers throughout several states -- Utah, California, Washington and Oregon. We were their last stop, but they said ours looked the best," Iwasaki said. "The following year they sent us some specs and we said, 'Hey, we can do this.'" Nordstrom buyers asked Iwasaki Brothers to provide poinsettias for more than just the Oregon stores, but the grower declined. "We had to back off," Iwasaki said, "The window of delivery is very small -- the Wednesday night prior to Thanksgiving. We just don' t have the capabilities to deliver to more than the Oregon stores. Trying to do so would be risky. What happens if there's an ice storm that night?"

Iwasaki Brothers Inc. Founded: In 1912 by Billy Iwasaki. His three sons, George, Ike and Art, later took over operations. George's son Jim, whose first job with the company was weeding for a penny per flat, is now general manager. Size: 50 acres with 400,000 square feet of covered growing space. Employees: 130. Primary crops: Packs, 4-inch and 1-gallon pots of annuals and perennials, mixed containers, poinsettias and wreaths. Primary customers: Mass merchandisers, but specialty products are sold to a wide range of customers. Service area: Oregon and Washington. For more: Iwasaki Brothers Inc., 2555 S.E. Minter Bridge Road, Hillsboro, OR 97123; (503) 640-2734; fax (503) 640-9626.

. © 1999 Branch-Smith Publishing