In the perennial business for 58 years, Sawyer Nursery, headquartered in Hudsonville, Michigan with a second location in Leesburg, Alabama, is a destination supplier for perennials. Starting out in 1956, Bob and Shirley Sawyer founded Sawyer Nursery to raise extra income to support a growing family. Ten years later, it became the sole source of income for the Sawyer family. Now co-owned by their sons Craig and Scott, Sawyer Nurseries wanted to trim the fat in their logistics and shipping.
At A Glance
The Issue
Sawyer Nursery was looking for a comprehensive solution from production
to fulfillment, without having to integrate various tools for day-to-day
operations. One of Sawyer’s immediate concerns was tying up maximum
value from landed cost with load. “Sawyer’s pricing to our chain customers
is landed prices, with Sawyer absorbing the freight cost to get product
delivered to stores. The more plants we get on each rack, and the more racks
we get on each truck, the less our cost is”, said Steve Brookhouse, Project
Manager at Sawyer Nursery.
The Solution
Using SBI’s Rack Optimization Tool, Sawyer was able to view rack status
in real-time, displaying individual availabilities, multiple shelf quantities
and heights, all while calculating for different rack types. “SBI’s rack
configuration is damn good”, says Brookhouse. Complete rack visibility
meant Sawyer’s team received live updates for racks with unused shelves to
ensure each was filled to maximum capacity. “These VERY filled racks are achieved with accurate heights on plants (that grow day to day), and a sales staff that meticulously builds orders that fill every shelf of every rack. This process alone has been an absolute winner for us”.
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60
Years in business
Founded in 1956.
2
Growing locations
Located in Hudsonville, Michigan and Leesburg, Alabama.
300
Acres
And over a million square feet of production space.
Rack Optimization
Using SBI’s Rack Optimization Tool, Sawyer was able to view rack status
in real-time, displaying individual availabilities, multiple shelf quantities
and heights, all while calculating for different rack types. “SBI’s rack
configuration is damn good”, says Brookhouse. Complete rack visibility
meant Sawyer’s team received live updates for racks with unused shelves to
ensure each was filled to maximum capacity. “These VERY filled racks are achieved with accurate heights on plants (that grow day to day), and a sales staff that meticulously builds orders that fill every shelf of every rack. This process alone has been an absolute winner for us”.
Over the two-year partnership, Sawyer Nursery and SBI Software were able to substantially increase the amount of product shipped to stores. “To date, both our Michigan and Alabama locations are getting 8% more product on the racks than the same weeks in 2014. And 2014 was about 20% more than 2013. When will it end…?”
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