keep you starving» oy not giving you much money
for your product John stated this is why he was
interested in M ik e ’s interest, as well as Wayne’s to
talk to somebody to help us change markets.
John Baker reported to the Commission that they
went to visit Jim Clark o f Teufel’s, and one thing
they found in Jim is he is a fellow with a lot o f
experience in the very business that the Evergreen
Enterprise has been in. John stated that Jim
knows the markets. John stated he thought one
o f the more interesting figures happened to be
that in Western Europe where there is a big
market, the same gross sales in terms o f greens o f
about $30 m illion as opposed to the United States
o f $30 million, here there are about 1200
wholesalers and there, there are 12 big
wholesalers, and Jim’s point is that if you can get
hooked up w ith one o f those big wholesalers, with
the same organization you have, you can probably
at least have a chance to nail down one o r two
big markets that would give you the margins you
would need to make it a profitable product. John
stated he does not see where you could get the
market, in the wholesale market, as it is now.
John stated that when they went to Seattle the
valuable thing they learned, by a process o f
elimination, was that we are not going to make a
niche in the wholesale market as it is, there are
already well established wholesalers in the big
Seattle metropolitan area, there are established
wholesalers in the Portland area, and some o f
these are the people we sell to. John stated you
would have to compete against them, you would
have to re-equip, you would have to have
trucking, you would have to have a lot o f things
to compete in that m arket John stated that by
process o f elimination they came to the
conclusion, given that you have a really good crew
on the Evergreen Enterprise, you have the thing
set up, you have the product, and you have the
people w illing to get the product to you, where
could you find a way to make money with this
same enterprise. John stated he feels there were
two that they pointed out, and certainly Jim Clark
is in the middle o f those, or somebody like Jim
Clark, and one o f them is you could direct sell to
florists in the U nited States. John stated you
would have to do some advertising, and then you
would ship by a ir freight. John stated you could
basically do this through m ail order and phone
calls.
John stated he feels Teufel’s sees a relationship
that could be helpful to them, and could be
helpful to the Evergreen project John stated that
what Jim C lark sees as the big business for the
Evergreen Enterprise is basically the salal, this is
the big seller. M ik e stated this would be bear
grass, too.
T im asked John where he got his information on
the market potential o f $30 million.
John stated this came from Teufel’s, they’ve got
the data and they have the figures on i t
John stated the other thing is that there would be
an expense if you were to really check out the
European m ark e t the projected amount for this
is $10,000. John stated you would probably want
someone like Jim Clark, that is a veteran in the
field, to go over and do something like th a t
John stated it would seem like the number one
option would be the European market, and the
number two thing would be some kind o f direct
June 1992
sales. John stated he has helped people do some
o f this, and knows it is possible. John stated that
if you did this second part you would probably
have to think a little bit about diversifying. John
stated that Wayne has suggested some things to
him that are very interesting, like dried plants
because the dried flowers are very big. John
stated that certainly the most obvious thing is, as
constituted it would be veiy difficult to make the
kind o f profit you would want to make. . J o h n
stated that reconstituted, in terms o f markets, it
could be very productive and veiy profitable.
M ike stated first o f all, he would like to say that
Jim Clark did not volunteer to go to Europe, we
asked him if he would be interested in going.
M ike stated to the Commission that if you look
at those figures for the first three months that
Jeff prepared for you, he said that you would
need to operate o ff o f a 35% margin, but what
you have been having is a 1.78% margin. M ike
stated that if you wanted to look at it that way,
you would have to increase your sales, over your
cost o f goods sold, by about 32%. M ike stated
this means you would have to get away from what
you have been selling to in the past because your
price o f product collected is not going to change
at all. M ike stated your labor costs are not going
to change at all either, except go up if you have
more production. M ike stated you have to get
into something where you can get more revenues
for the sales. M ike stated he feels that 35% is a
margin that you have to have, just to break even.
M ike stated that even at that you would have a
7% return on investment, so it is not a lucrative
market.
John Baker statedg there is one other thing he was
going to say, and this is just sort o f a sideline to
the reason he is present, but when they were up
in Seattle one o f the visits they made was to the
Food Editor o f the Seattle Times, whose wife is
a gourmet food wholesaler. They found out from
this visit that the gourmet vegetable market has
been really good for several years, and all the
predictions are that it is going to be outstanding.
John stated this is not a real expensive thing to
get in to, given the portable nature o f
greenhouses. John stated there is a veiy strong
market, it’s growing, and there is room in it for a
lot more people than are currently in it, for
certain kinds o f products. John stated he thought
he would relate this to you because he knows you
are looking for whatever Enterprise that seems to
be lucrative and good.
John stated this is
certainty one that could be beared to look at a lot
more, and costed o u t John stated it looks veiy
promising.
M ik e stated that Jim Clark also said that there is
definitely a potential for a controlled environment
market for salal. M ike stated it would not be
greenhouses, it would be field grown where you
would control h e a t and water.
John M ille r stated this would be where you would
control the growth, everything you would get on
top eveiy year is pickable and sellable, where out
in the wild you have other factors.
John Baker stated that Jim Clark said that if you
ever got into the European market you would be
forced to go into some kind o f controlled growth
like th a t
Dan Rilatos stated his question to John Baker is,
what would he do right now in this situation.
2 1
John stated he feels you have the production
capability, without any changes, to get the same
kind o f level o f product you have now, all you are
looking for is a market. John stated he feels you
have a good chance to do something, given the
people that can look at it.
Dan V an O tten stated to John baker that one o f
the things he had hoped we were going to get out
o f the work that you and Wayne were doing was
some information about markets, a feasibility.
Dan Van Otten stated to John that he does not
see this in there.
John Baker asked D an what kind o f feasibility and
what kind o f market.
Dan Van O tten stated that even in the scenario
that you provided here, the customers that are
listed as potential markets are customers-that we
have dealt with in the past, which have turned out
to be pretty bad customers. Dan stated he has
yet to receive anything that indicated that there is
a market.
John Baker stated there isn’t really a market for
the way you are constituted, and this is why they
went to Seattle. John stated they went to 5 o r 6
wholesalers, they called other wholesalers, and
found there is no market the way you are
currently constituted to make a p ro fit
John
stated that it is just not there.
M ike stated that what he (Jim Clark) is saying is
that if you want to roll the dice for another
$10,000, then you would be able to go over to
Europe and find out if there is a market there.
Dan Van O tten asked i f the $10,000 going to
include information about how we are going to
access that market, in terms o f product
M ike stated yes.
Dan Van O tten stated that at this point he would
like to see in writing, exactly what we are going
to get out o f that $10,000 investment D an Van
O tten stated that i f this is just some short write
up about who was visited and what they said, then
he would not be veiy interested.
M ike stated that Jim said he would either come
back with contracts o r he would come back with
no m arket
L illie asked why hasn’t Teufel, since they are so
big, hit that m arket
John M ille r stated they are not into greens. John
stated they are not in this business, they are
nursery people, Christmas wreath people, and that
sort o f thing. John stated that their function in
this is actually to get us to help supply them the
greens they need for their Christmas stuff.
Bud stated that what they might do is go and find
out about the market, and come back to us and
say they would want us to supply them.
M ik e stated they made the decision not fo get
into the market, and what Jim Clark is saying is
that i f you want to take the plunge you can do it,
and we w ill help you do that, if you w ill pay, us.