Ceress Business Case Study

Case  Study:    Ceres  Gardening  Company

1.1  Sales  and  customers  -­  Ceres  operates  in  the  organic  gardening  market,  a  $350M

industry  that  is  growing  at  8%  to  10%  annually.  Ceres’  products  include  certified  organic

plants  and  seeds  for  vegetables,  culinary  herbs,  flowers,  and  live  plants  like  fruit  trees.

Ceres    sells  80%  of  its  products  by  acting  as  a  supplier  to  nurseries  and  garden  centers,

and  20%  direct  to  customers  through  its  online  channel.  Its  customer  base  is  comprised  of

serious  gardeners,  as  well  as  weekend  hobbyists  who  take  a  more  relaxed  approach  to

gardening.  Sales  tend  to  be  seasonal,  with  the  majority  occurring  over  the  course  of  4-­5

weekends  per  year,  as  the  gardening  season  is  dependent  upon  weather.

1.2  Productions  and  operations  -­  Ceres  has  farms  and  distribution  networks  in  central

California  and  Pennsylvania.  It  also  buys  from  from  a  network  of  small,  independent  organic

farms.  As  sales  are  seasonal,  production  is  assumed  to  be  seasonal.  Ceres  uses

independent  sales  representatives  and  its  own  sales  force  to  maintain  the  company

relationship  with  sales  channel.

1.3  Management  and  personnel  -­  Jonathan  Wydown,  CEO,  founded  the  company  in

1989.  In  2002,  Annette  O’Connel    joined  the  company  as  the  vice-­president  of  Marketing

and  helped  expand  the  sales  force  with  the  addition  of  many  independent  sales

representatives.  There  is  no  information  about  the  number  of  employees,  but  it  is  assumed

to  be  of  fair  size  since  Ceres’  needs  a  relatively  large  sales  force  to  to  serve  its

approximately  10,000  dealers.

1.4  Strategy  -­  Ceres  evaluates  its  success  by  measuring  its  annual  growth  against  growth

of  the  organic  gardening  industry.  Ceres  strategy  has  been  to  appeal  to  a  wholesome...