One of the leading cut flower growers, shippers, and wholesalers in the United States is Mellano and Company, and we are excited to introduce them to our floral audience. Mellano had a humble and modest beginning nearly 100 years ago. Giovanni Mellano set up shop in 1925 as a wholesale distributor in Los Angeles, California. He soon expanded his business by purchasing six acres in the Los Angeles area and began growing his own flowers. Mellano and Company has been plowing ahead in floriculture ever since then.
Mellano and Company is headquartered in its Los Angeles Flower Market location, where Giovanni first began. The growing operation was relocated 1970 to sunny San Diego County in the San Luis Rey Valley. Today, the farm is the heart of the operation, farming on over 375 acres under the watchful eyes of Giovanni’s children and grandchildren.
Now in its third generation, Mellano and Company has redefined its family concept to include employees and customers. This “extended family” has played a significant role in Mellano and Company’s success story as they continue to expand not only in their Los Angeles wholesale location but also locations in Carlsbad and Las Vegas, NV. “A big reason for our success is that we are well diversified,” Giovanni’s grandson Bob Mellano says. His brothers Mike and Jim agree. “We strive to stay technologically advanced, vertically integrated, and not afraid to make a crop-mix change. All of this adds to our success and the success of our customers.” We love their technological approach-- and are excited to feature them.
When we caught up with Bruce Brady, VP of Sales and Marketing, he was in his 8th year with Mellano. As an integral member of the Mellano team, Bruce brought his experience from his time with the California Cut Flower Commission to head up Mellano's mass market presence. Bruce brought his expertise in this part of the industry to begin a bouquet department... and they have since re-branded the company to expand their focus under Bruce's direction.
Looking at the vastness of these locations, it was mentioned that a great book to read is a fascinating journey through the 1920s with William Mulholland. Los Angeles was a desert, and this story reveals the foresight and engineering feat of Mr. Mullholland to fund and build a considerable aqueduct that would allow access to water in the desert. Indeed, it was one of the giants of the industry, which led to the ability to farm and grow in population. That's about the same time our founder began growing flowers; without these resources, our business wouldn't exist.
What keeps us in business is that we have to be very smart about how we farm. Wells are significant to us - staying in business as a farmer in California is very difficult. We have a lot of intelligent people in our company, and success depends on how wise we are in our operations - this has kept us growing. Giovanni Mellano was bought out twice, but with determination and the benefits of farming, he established his wealth in land. We've had big discussions on a more accessible cash crop other than flowers - but we've determined we are an industry leader and produce the most beautiful blooms. Flowers are here to stay.It all starts in the field, depending on who we're servicing! When we're talking farm product - it is good quality. But it's also finding and establishing the suppliers who go above and beyond on the sourcing side. It's how we take care of our customers, so we do a lot of pre-planning, finding out what our customers need and bringing it to them. Many florists don't know what the best product to offer is or what is in season. All of that knowledge is what we are bringing to the customer. We desire the best for our customers and go above and beyond to provide this product to them.
What are your best communication methods?
We provide a bi-weekly price list with our availability. Our assigned sales reps communicate and represent products, assisting our customers with our best daily. The Details platform offers a unique way to communicate with our florists on their needs and allows us to find a way to meet them. We like to be at the forefront of innovation. To see everything from last minute to weeks or months in advance is revolutionary. Details will give us ample time to get ahead of production cycles and have orders in, which is greatly helpful in our pre-planning. Details also allows more time, producing a higher probability of the order being fulfilled. If our florists better understand the probability of getting fresher products for less money, then we can usually negotiate a better deal overall. This tends to allow less of taking whatever you can get on the supply side and allows the customer to get more of what they want. Advanced notice for the florist's needs is better for everyone-- from the farm to retailer to consumer.
We ship all over the country via FedEx. We even ship out of the country for events. We also have a distribution facility in Southern California. We find ourselves all over the place helping a variety of business owners. Being a shipper as well as a grower gives us a unique perspective.
At the farm level- we have trucks from Armelllini, Florida Beauty, & Prime coming to our docks daily to pick up our shipments, which travel throughout the country. With our distribution business, we run trucks to our florists Monday through Saturday, and on Sunday, we receive air freight and trucks from our growers, too. Our distribution is working pretty much seven days a week. A whole industry is at work to fill our customer's orders. What florists need most are reliable suppliers, and at Mellano, we provide that. Our job is to find the most economical and quality path to help our florists get the product they desire. This expertise is helping our florists increase their bottom lines and help them stay in business. We have hundreds of people involved in this process, from growing to distributing to flying... it's a vast industry effort all the time... every single day. We know how to properly execute all of their needs through vast flower distribution channels. We help to make our florists look like flower "Rock Stars!"
Scramble. That's what we do. One of the things we've been doing for 90 years is problem-solving. We have to figure out how to get that product from point A to point B; we have to be expert problem solvers not to let our customers down. That is a BIG part of our business-- DAMAGE CONTROL. We want to make it look seamless- but it's not. Our job is to make it problem-free. On any given week, we are sourcing products from Africa, Ethiopia, Thailand, Chile, Alaska, and Canada-- it's an international web of sourcing that we can go to come up with something to get the job done.
Let's be honest; the last-minute unrealistic demands that they have sold things that aren't even in the ground at that time are challenging. Unrealistic expectations that can't be met-- by any supplier. It's a lot of last-minute pieces often. Every day that gets closer to the day the product is needed is one less day that we CAN solve the problem and meet the demand.
We love it when our florists have successful events, and they are happy-- and their customers are happy. That's the only reason to be in this business. When an event goes well, and the joy is in place all around, that is satisfying for the florist and us as the supplier.
We do! We do on-site events often. We occasionally host flower "Schools" that run out of our wholesale facility. We also have a new video series that we will be rolling out that helps florists get back to the basics. Many new people in the business do not know what we know, so we do our best to teach them these tips, in addition to being a great source. We've compiled much industry knowledge in our 100 years of business- even outside our geographic footprint- and enjoy sharing it with our customers.
We hope Details will offer a more streamlined approach for florists to do business with us. The reality is- we all buy online. If our florists can save time and be more efficient with their processes, we can see a long-term relationship with Details Flowers Software and our customers.
"Mommas, don't let your babies enter the floral industry!" Lol. In all seriousness, be as good at the business side of floristry as you are at the design side. It always seems like there are a lot of talented designers, but not as talented as business owners. We all want long-term success-- and to get there, you must have solid fundamental business practices. For example, some florists come to our market daily to pick flowers. They sometimes drive 2 hours, spend 2 hours shopping-- and then complain about delivery charges when they have to have things delivered. Many people do things that are not rational and could save hundreds of dollars each week by letting their sales reps select blooms for them instead of making the trek. The way we see it, they could sell to new clients and generate more revenue instead of driving to great lengths to pick products. The hard part is selling the events-- and we'd love for them to focus on growing that part of their business and let us do the procurement part.
Unfortunately, the dumpster pays nothing. Pre-ordering helps us, and there is very little product risk. We have to raise the price if stuff goes in the dumpsters, so if it comes in, it goes out, EVERYBODY WINS. Preorders will get you the freshest product at the lowest costs. I can only bring in what I'm confident I can sell it. Options are endless if you have a bit of time on your side.
Thank you, Bruce, for helping us get to know you better. To close, we love to hear that each year, Mellano & Company participates in providing flowers for notable events, including the Rose Parade, the Emmys, and the Conservatory in Las Vegas. Mellano is a special events machine helping thousands of florists with their events. And Bruce states, "We enjoy helping our event florists, and love to see their work receive the accolades it deserves." We couldn't agree more.
Mellano and Company prides itself on its progressive ideas, many of which have been developed into industry-wide improvements in growing and logistics. Innovations that have developed over the years include:
To learn more about Mellano & CO, please visit their website at www.mellano.com!