EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MESSAGE
The word I get is that business has been very good this spring. The wet winter developed a backlog of orders. If it wasn’t too wet to harvest grass, it was too wet to plant wherever it was going. Once the weather broke, grass has been shipping on a regular basis.
The cool spring didn’t help either. Grass just doesn’t grow much until the night temperatures are 70 or above. That didn’t happen until late May this year. Growers in North Texas said green-up was delayed by several weeks. The result was that many growers were having difficulty filling orders due to a grass shortage.
The good news is that prices seem to be up. Several producers have mentioned that they have raised prices due to the increased cost of production and the strong demand. I don’t know who was the first to bite the bullet and raise your prices, but you deserve a medal. There is a tendency among growers to try to have the cheapest grass in the market.
The June issue of the TPI Business Management newsletter has a very good article by Coach Karl Ruegg dealing with the top 10 marketing mistakes. One that he points out is under valuing your product. He says that customers won’t value what you have to offer if you don’t value it yourself. I encourage you to read the article. He makes several good points.
We have started listing price indexes in The Pallet. You know what diesel, fertilizer and other costs are doing. They cost more each time you purchase them than they did the last time. The price index compares current prices against the prices for the same items during the 1990-92 period. Most input prices have outrun inflation considerably. Diesel today cost more than twice what it did. Have your grass prices increased accordingly? Most have not even adjusted them for inflation.
When you decide to increase prices, it makes good sense to contact your regular customers in advance to explain why you are doing so to give them time to adjust the bids they may be making on new jobs. If they bid the old price, and you stick to your guns on the increase, they may go elsewhere and end up using cheaper, “junk” grass. That does not help the consumer, the landscaper or the industry as a whole.
Will the strong demand for grass continue? Indications are that housing starts are strong and that bodes well for demand. Some growers have mentioned that there could be more grass available this summer as fields that were cut last year become available. However, they also state that there could be a shortage again this fall