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Route
to Job: From
Land's to the Outer Hebrides, Steve can reach you. Forget
the 50km catchment area most garden centres boast, the internet
is truly global, he insists.
A youth Training Scheme in 1893 at Grosvenor Garden Centre
gave Steve his love ofplants and helped propel him into management.
After four years at the Chester centre he joined Knutsford's
High Leigh garden centre, but wanted to push himself further.
He started his own garden centre and spent a year learning
about cash flows and tax. He used this on his return to employee
status to give a dramatic boost to sales at Hilliers, Hemel
Hempstead. Four years later he was a garden centre manager
at Caffyn-Parson Garden Centre Group, and then it clicked
at Greenfingers.com in mid-2000.
Typical day:
"There's no touchy-feely aspect
to the internet and mail order so you work much harder to
market plants than in a garden centre. I usually check my
e-mails first thing at 8.30am. I get up to 40 every morning
from potential suppliers.
"People want something a little different from the internet
and mail order and a plant that sells well at a garden centre
may bomb at Greenfingers. This calls for good plant-buying
skills. But I also scrutinise packaging and the costs of delivery,
which can hit margins. Text and images sell our plants, so
I check editorial and pictures.
"We have to think imaginatively and offer customers plant
collections and creative concepts from 8,000 product lines.
Today I'm checking what is selling, what is not, and what
should be on our web site. There's no customer contact, which
I miss, but it means I work faster and there's no weekend
work.
"We produced 10 million catalogues this year. There's
a lot of taboos about the internet since the dot.com bomb,
but it's stll expanding rapidly and there's amazing scope
for forward-thinking suppliers."
Best
aspect of the job: "The chance to influence
more people through the internet, and spend weekends with
my family."
Worst
aspect: "The long journey time to work from
home in Hemel Hempstead."
Ambition:
"To
become a director of a large gardening business within five
to 10 years."
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