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Business name: Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc. Website: www.terranovanurseries.com Owners/founders: Dan Heims and Ken Brown Years in business: 13 yrs Product(s): New Perennial Plants from Tissue Culture Employees: 57 Where are the markets (industries and/or businesses if B2B) for your products and how important are local customers for what you produce? Worldwide, but primarily USA and Canada. Nurseries, greenhouses, garden centers, mail order nurseries. Local customers are a small percentage of our sales. What does your company do to differentiate itself and its products from those of its competitors? Our innovations in breeding (in the nursery and in the lab) provide upwards of 60 new varieties to North American horticulture a year. (We now have over 500 new plant introductions) thus, we are viewed as a world leader in the introduction of new plants. Dan Heims travels worldwide each year to collect new germplasm for breeding and also brings back hybrid plants offering royalties to the originators of such plants. We carry over 200 plant patents in the US and Europe and are now applying for patent coverage in Japan. How has your business changed in the last 5 years (if it is even 5 years old)? Strong, but controlled growth. Improvement of facilities, establishment of foreign labs (India, Indonesia, Germany, Costa Rica, New Zealand) to handle the increased demand that our own facilities can't handle. The last two years? Vast expansion of facilities, quintupling the lab size and doubling our greenhouse and propagation operations. While other nurseries report flat or decreased sales, our innovative product line has kept us in the black. Key innovations in your company (products, processes, designs, ideas)? Our capable staff has created plant profiles for over 500 plants, allowing us to export formulas and techniques necessary for the worldwide multiplication of our plants. Our 18 acre site allows us adequate room to do extensive breeding trials; the result of an organized and competent breeding crew. Our marketing (internal) has consistently produced glorious color catalogs with enough humor to have people clamoring for it each year. Terra Nova was the first nursery to include a catalog with an accompanying CD and just this last year we introduced the first companion DVD with movies, slide shows, and contact information. The TN sales team has created award winning trade show displays and creative ads. Our display gardens showcase our perennials and have been the focus of special attention by the BBC, Sveriges Television (Sweden), HGTV, and local TV Garden Shows. We have won over 60 International awards for our plants. Key breakthrough or turning point in the business: Customer's needs were widely unmet due to the overwhelming demand for our product and the inability to produce what the market desired. Once we were able to scale our production and sales team (and facilities) to meet the demand, our profits increased measurably. What's the biggest challenge facing your business? Piracy from foreign labs, Maintaining customer support and quality of product with expansion. Controlling growth. Can you describe how metro Portland works as a base from which to compete? Airport and transportation availability. Horticultural support in the Canby area (we're one of over 1700 nurseries in Oregon). Labor availability, both trained and manual. Banks that understand the nursery business.
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