Watch for potholes

Kelli Rodda

Growers traveling the road to recovery have seen some dangerous S curves, lots of steep hills, countless obstacles and even some road closures. But road conditions are improving. Each year, the data we collect for our State of the Industry report improves. Grower confidence in the market gets better, and sales and profits increase a little more. Let’s hope we can trade in the dangerous road conditions for just a few potholes. There’s still a lot of ground to make up, but at least we’re heading in the right direction.

In this year’s State of the Industry report, nearly 70 percent of those surveyed said they are “somewhat confident” and 20 percent were “very confident” the market for nursery products will grow in 2014. Last year, 35 percent said they weren’t confident at all about market growth, compared with 12 percent this year. Of course you need a Plan A and a Plan B when it comes to responding to economic recovery. Read the story on page 18 for some economic predictions.

Sales and profits are up
Sales gains so far in 2013 far outweighed declines with 64 percent of those surveyed saying sales increased this year compared to last year. The largest increase was 1-10 percent followed closely by gains of 10-20 percent. Some 17 percent said sales were flat this year and 19 percent saw a decline in sales.

See all the stats starting on page 12.

There was some encouraging news regarding profits. More than half (53 percent) of growers said profits were up compared to flat (23 percent) or declines (24 percent). And most (67 percent) anticipate an increase in profits in 2014.

One way to increase profits is to get a handle on your costs. Please see the story on page 22 that discusses how to properly track your costs.

Plans for plants
This year’s most profitable crops for respondents were container-grown shrubs and container-grown perennials tied for first place (21.5 percent), followed by field-grown trees (19 percent) and edibles (12 percent).

Looking to next year, growers plan on producing more perennials (43.5 percent), followed by flowering shrubs (37 percent), edibles (30 percent), evergreen shrubs (27 percent) and shade trees and flowering trees both at 25 percent.

Share your story
Business owners learn best from their peers. Let us hear from you. What were your hits and misses this year? How did increase sales and/or profits? What worked and what didn’t? What new things are you trying in 2014? Let’s make this road to recovery easier to navigate by working together and lifting up the industry as a whole. Some of you may get there a little faster, but we’re all aiming for the same destination: Success.