uh my name is cameron brown i'm president and ceo of stark brothers nurseries and
orchards in louisiana missouri what really is satisfying is having a team
that has such passion for for what we've been doing for all these years and and i'm here
today to introduce the employees and the the staff people that make this all work for me and to begin
with i'd like to introduce don morris who's our chief operating officer and team leader and uh and
don can talk about uh you know some of the things that that are key for him hi i'm don uh yeah i'm
i'm the ceo here kind of on the ground uh leader our goal here is to put the best quality product
into the hands of our of our customers and these are the guys that really do that uh so starting
over here we have uh tabitha this is tabitha from uh from uh customer service she handles all the
the customer service side of the things on the far side over here we have mr martin over there so
mr martin is responsible for everything has to do with all the growing that goes on so the stuff you
get to home grown mr martin's going to make that grow to get that stuff to you is going to be with
freedom white she's responsible for our director of operations responsible for everything that once
mr martin's done with it getting it to mrs white and getting it home to you so freedom uh you know
you're on the front line of of uh working with with the greenhouses and and our own growers to
bring these products and then you have to put them in some form and get them to my back door and ship
it out there how do you get all that done i i can barely mail a ups backup or something well it's
it's uh it takes a couple years to get for us to get all of it done we are always working at least
18 months ahead even with growing or even if we're buying the products to make sure that we get the
orders to the customers in time but once it gets here then we have figured out ways with different
types of done engine cardboard and air pillows to make sure that it gets to the customer several
years ago i think we counted the number of touches it takes to develop a plant and it was almost up
to a hundred you know and all the elements we have to do it i'm i'm amazed that how much we put into
that that effort of of grafting and budding and and wrapping and and those things yeah yeah we
certainly do we um you know we're going to pass this on the kin here because ken's in production
as a company i've moved to where we grow most of our trees in pots now we still take the root
stocks that we have that instead of putting in the ground like we used to they are now put in pots
you still have to trim the roots you still have to make sure they stay watered and then once
these roots get to the time frame where we bud or graft on them then we're still we're doing
that and so now you're continuing to water you've got a sucker you've got to bamboo we use bamboo to
keep the trees straight so there's lots of things that continually go on with making sure that we
have the best quality tree that we can get and one of the things about the pots that we we use
is allows for um an initial root growth that's a lot better for when you put it in the ground
it's the starter roots are there and you get a better start on your tree
they may be a tad smaller than what you would buy as a bare root tree but it's like i said it's that
root system it's got the starter there uh and once you get it in the ground then it'll take off yeah
yeah one of the things that ken is talking about is is uh historically trees were grown in rows and
they were dug and they were what they call bare roots so we still sell our roots so we're we're
able to do either and uh added to that we're doing the organic now you might mention something about
what we're doing in organic right now our organic program is bare root but we have started a organic
program in regards to small fruits blueberries blackberries things like that and that this
allows for those individuals that want to know that they don't have pesticides herbicides and
stuff associated with the growth of their plant to begin with it's organic from the beginning oh
yes what we'll see i see tabitha as one of the the places to where
if a customer is happy or not happy or whatever it ends up in tabitha's lap so to speak and so
what what what's going on out there quality and customer satisfaction is
our number one goal at star brothers we love our product and we love our customers even more
i mean we um we do such a good job at trying to make sure that the customer has everything that
they need before they get their order and after they get their order we are connected with our
customers in so many different ways you know we customers can visit our website they can pick
up the phone and call us they can send us an email we now have live chat we are on every social media
channel we have a one year survival guarantee because we want you to be successful we we we
want you to get your plant we want you to be happy with it right away and if you're not let us know
you know you have a full year to get that plant in the ground water it fertilize it prune it and
if something happens within that year pick up the phone give us a call send us an email send
us a live chat we're going to take care of you within that one year because we
truly care so you know to hear customers that are happy is is i think makes us all feel good like
it's a team it's it's integrated together and we have the science and the and the experience
to make it work quite well no one else out there i don't believe as as as engaging as much as we are
to to develop the education once you buy it if you have an apple tree it's gonna last i don't
know 10 15 20 years that we have the accessories we have the fertilizer and all the things that
you want to raise it whether it be organic or non-organic and that we follow the the grower the
the gardener with that information and they can always stay tuned to stark brothers because
really that's where i want our staff to stay really good is holding the hand of people and
and taking them down the road to growing their own fresh products and and know where that food comes
from yeah so let's talk about a little bit more about what's going on in the new year's with the
with the new products uh and um that's coming on expansion of our uh of our uh inventory it's grown
dramatically uh the expansion of our business over the last few years has grown dramatically
yeah the new things we're bringing on uh so we'll talk about uh columnar trees so polymers are
apples specifically that are meant to be grown in a pot but on your back porch and take up a little
bit of space uh they've been around for quite a while we've had them for quite a while we're
just expanding that because it's a great product for for those of us who live in in uh cities and
smaller places like to ask so you can have them on your patio absolutely new york move them around do
whatever you got to do with them and uh bring them inside took them outside uh and studies
that's like a great idea uh so tabitha what customers saying anything about the new website
i think our customers love it you know the website is really bright and fresh when you click on it um
the everything just pops um it flows really well together it's very easy to navigate and find the
answers that you're looking for because we have so much information right there on the pages
so you guys should check us out at starkbros.com yeah and we'll sign autographs