Abe VanWingerden explains how this family-owned company has grown throughout the years to become one of the largest greenhouses in the US.

When Tom VanWingerden came to America from Holland in 1972 with his wife, Vickie, and two small children, he rented a 200,000-square-foot greenhouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, and began planting the seeds of his dream. Within a year, his business had outgrown the tiny facility, so VanWingerden moved his operation to a 50-acre plot in Huntersville, where he began selling several varieties of annuals to a number of local retail stores.

Since then, the entrepreneur’s dreams have blossomed into Metrolina Greenhouses, one of the largest greenhouse companies in the US with 115 acres under glass and $100 million in sales. The family blossomed as well—Tom and Vickie went on to have four more children, all of whom are involved with the company.

Metrolina graduated from selling to small local stores to larger chain stores when Eckerd became its primary customer in 1975. It later picked up business from Food Lion and KMart, but today, Wal-Mart and Lowe’s constitute 97% of the company’s business.

Abe VanWingerden

“We started with just a small order with Lowe’s in 1996 when they were pushing to attract more female customers with their larger garden centers. The timing was right, and today, they are by far our largest customer,” said Abe Van Wingerden, Tom’s second son and Metrolina’s president and head of sales and marketing.

A family affair
The COO explained that during the past 20 years, the company has successfully transitioned from a small, family-owned business to a mid-sized corporation. Abe, who spent 10 years at Proctor & Gamble, brings his knowledge of big business to the table—the dinner table.

“We’ve made sure to balance family-business elements with corporate elements. For instance, we can’t use inventory control software designed to handle 35 manufacturing plants, but we can’t use the back of a napkin like we did 20 years ago,” said Abe. “We have to be willing to adapt and reevaluate our processes from time to time.”

Metrolina Greenhouses was careful not to get caught in the trap many family-run companies encounter: “When you have a multitude of children coming in the business, they all end up wanting to do the same thing,” Abe explained. Call it luck, but all six children have found their own—very different—niche. Abe’s older brother, Art, serves as COO, while his younger sister Helen works in the IT department. Brother Michael is in charge of shipping and distribution, and Thomas leads construction projects. The youngest sister, Rose, is a school teacher, but her husband is hard at work in the greenhouses manning the cart tracking system. And Vickie serves as CFO. “When you’re 38 and you’re still telling people you need to get permission from your mom, it’s not cool,” Abe joked.

The COO explained that many companies in the agricultural industry often struggle with a seasonal work force, but Metrolina has managed to hold onto its employees. For starters, it’s location in North Carolina allows it to grow spring bedding plants, summer annuals, fall mums and pansies, and winter poinsettias.

“We’ve tested and marketed plant varieties that allow people to get into their gardens earlier and stay in them later. It’s great for our customers because they can keep their garden centers open longer, it’s great for us because we generate more sales, and it’s great for our work force because they’re busy year round,” said Abe.

In addition, the company ships within a 400 mile radius of the greenhouse. The climate differs enough within that geography that when springtime in Atlanta, Georgia is fading away into summer, the grass is just turning green in Atlantic City, NJ.

Advantage in automation
Metrolina Greenhouses also has a leg up on innovation, which helps with employee retention. Tom has spent his career designing machinery for the greenhouse industry to maximize space and eliminate back-breaking, monotonous tasks. One time-consuming task is spacing pots. In the past, employees bent over repeatedly to move pots several inches apart so plants could grow evenly, but Tom invented a robotic arm and synchronized belts that can do the job in a fraction of the time.

Metrolina has also automated the chore of transplanting seedlings into larger pots. In the past, 15 people could transplant 500 seedling trays per hour, but thanks to robotic fingers that lift the plants out of their starter cells into larger pots, five people can transplant 1,000 seedling trays per hour.

Abe was sure to explain that the company isn’t automating processes to reduce its labor force. Instead, it moves people into higher-skilled jobs. As a result, seven out of 15 top managers (excluding family) have been with the company more than 20 years. “We’ve been lucky to get people who could grow with us, which is rare in the agriculture industry,” said Abe.

Metrolina doesn’t bother licensing its machinery or collecting royalties on it. In fact, Tom works with engineering companies to develop the technology and allows them to sell it to competitors. Why? “My father is the second oldest of 16 children, and all of his brothers are in the greenhouse business. The good news is they don’t compete in our region. Plus, we’re always working on the next machine, and we figure it will take other companies 18 to 24 months to develop similar technology. But by that point, we are already ahead,” said Abe.

Plant Partners
Metrolina Greenhouses is also ahead of the competition as it provides several value-added services to customers. Abe explained that in the past, business was strictly a matter of growing product and shipping it to customers. But in 1997, employees began traveling to customer locations to take products off the company’s delivery trucks quickly to prevent spoilage and arrange and care for products on store shelves.

“They also work with the customer to develop effective product displays and lay outs and give us feedback as to what’s popular so we can adjust our offerings,” Abe said.

The concept took off, and about four years ago, Metrolina Greenhouses opened Plant Partners, a 600-employee company that does roughly $10 million in sales. Plant Partners has expanded to provide the same services to smaller greenhouses who don’t have enough critical mass to justify the cost. “We are changing the way retailers view greenhouse suppliers so we can grow the industry together,” Abe concluded.