Sutton Ferneries

Sutton Ferneries Incorporated provides a range of greenery to which customers can add their flowers to customize their floral arrangements. In 2008 Sutton Ferneries Incorporated was featured on “Focus on America” in the series “America’s best growers” as the only farm owned greens supplier in the Miami Cut Foliage Market. This company has distinguished its products by its innovative designs and high standard of quality.

As we entered Sutton Ferneries Incorporated, we were warmly welcomed by Mrs. Michele Sutton the President and Chief Executive Officer. We were given a presentation which outlined the history, the operations and the products of the company. This was followed by a tour of the factory to observe the operations and then four students were given an opportunity to test one of the products during a fun session of creating a floral arrangement. After this, Mrs. Sutton addressed all the questions of the enquiring minds of the UTT students.

Mrs. Sutton’s story began when she completed her studies in the field of languages. Not being sure of how to proceed, she received a box of greenery from a relative who advised her that there was a market for it. She decided to follow through and relentlessly visited floral shops and other potential customers to sell the greenery. This perseverance led to her having such a large customer base, that she had to source additional suppliers of the greenery to supply her customers. Eventually, she also had to incorporate the farming of greenery as part of her business to keep up with her customer demands. Now operating under Sutton Ferneries Inc., Sutton Ferneries Inc. and its farms have been producing and distributing top quality ferns and foliage worldwide since 1987.

The Sutton’s establishment has a keen interest on directing and catering their line of products to quality and customer satisfaction. The elaborate range of floral designs that have been developed within this enterprise, expresses not only the artistic nature of the designer’s expression but also the reciprocity of quality and an apparent approach toward excellence and the eventual delivery of a choice product.

The approach towards recruitment into the organization was also of particular interest to the IIEM entourage. Potential staff was firstly interviewed; this was done within a rudimentary manner with a particular interest being placed on the prior history of the applicant, their current interests and their further expectations as to what they would be able to offer as a benefit to the company. This perspective, as indicated by Mrs. Sutton was integral to the best fitting of applicant to the job. Another interesting aspect of the operations strategy is the cross- training of the entire staff and thus ensuring that allowing everyone has a full grasp of the business. New recruits all start off at the same point and are given not only an equal opportunity for progression upwards but also a broadened view thereby allowing everyone to be aligned.

Quality assurance of the products is an area that is considered to be a vital element to the structure of the business. The importance of this part of the process was made vivid when the entourage was shown, that the individual bundles of cut produce could be traced to the individual reaper/s, ensuring that responsibility was targeted accurately in case of a query. Other aspects of quality assurance and accountability were evident within the observation that one in every ten, of the finished goods was checked for consistency and quality. The justification of these checks was evident within the high satisfaction of the products by consumers.

The use of technology within the operation of the business has also been of pivotal importance. The issues relating to proper tracking and movement of supplied materials and finished goods has led to the adoption of ingenuity and the best industry practices in order to deliver the best possible product.

Truly, this was a valuable learning experience. An important lesson this class will retain from this experience is despite its success, the company has faced several challenges. One of the major challenges faced by this company is the destruction of the farm where the ferns are planted by hurricanes which have destroyed many of the company’s produce over time. In one case after efforts of recovery from these attacks, the ferns became affected by Anthracnose, a disease which affects the leaves of plants; despite experiencing such losses, the President sought the positive side and explored other sustainable measures such as importing these ferneries, instead of closing the business down.

Mrs. Sutton, continues to create and design new products and currently possesses a 5 year plan, although, she did not begin the business via the use of a business plan. She revealed her best teacher has been the mistakes that she has made from the establishment of the business to this point. Although not fully comprehending the avenue to pursue after completion of her language studies, she decided to follow her passion and developed this business. This has in turn worked out for the best as most of her employees speak Spanish and she can now effectively communicate to them. Thus, she leaves with us the advice to follow our dreams.