This transcript is AI generated; there may be mistakes.

That's been the Ball motto since I've been around, is make sure the customer is whole, make sure everything is right, everything else takes care of itself.

I'm Walter Gravagna, the owner of Van de Wetering Greenhouses here in Riverhead, New York, which is on the North Fork of Long Island.

We service the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast region with plugs and liners for Ball Seed.

I handle logistics and sales, and I've been here for 30 years.

Van de Wetering has been here for 40 years, and I'm still having fun.

It was started by my father-in-law, Peter Van de Wetering.

He and Jack Van de Wetering were partners at Ivy Acres, and back in 1989, Peter decided to split from Jack, and he went into the young plant business and became a supplier for Ball.

So when I joined Van de Wetering Greenhouses, we sold through multiple brokers.

We made a decision that we had to choose one broker that best represented what we do, and Ball as a family business, we chose them to partner with and soon after became a goal supplier.

The goal supply was first started, and it's been a great ride ever since.

We produce plugs and liners from Ball, Selecta, Ball FloraPlant.

That is our core of our business.

We went all in on young plants.

It's even on our sign outside.

That's what we do.

What we tell our customers when we go visit them, you know, we don't want them to buy our plugs or liners.

We want to grow their plugs and liners.

We want to be a part of their business, and everything we do is a major factor in their success.

So the accountability is there from the beginning.

We ensure that we're shipping quality products by having dialogue with our customers because they will let you know right away if something's not right.

Monday morning is always interesting because you get feedback right away.

When you're selling your product and you're booking business, the dialogue is back and forth.

So when you're shipping, that dialogue is still there as well.

So you get immediate feedback, and that's what we want from customers.

I tell customers all the time, let me know so that issues don't become ongoing.

They're one-week issues and not multiple weeks.

We do the same thing with our supplier, which is Ball Seed, Ball FloraPlant, Selecta.

When we're seeing issues, constant communication right back to the farm, and that's what makes the supply chain that we have, I think, so effective.

To ensure that we're producing quality in the future is really focusing on innovation, whether it be sticking machines, transplanters, rework machines.

You know, technology is where it's at, you know, and that's the future.

Human capital is getting harder and harder to come by.

It's getting more expensive, so investing in machines and innovation is really where our focus is.

You still need people, you know.

That's the most important thing.

We invest in our people as well, and we want to make sure that when people come to work here, this is their career.

This is not a temporary job, and that's hard in the seasonal business, but we want everyone to look at this place as home when they come to work every day and really give it their all and take ownership, and that's what we do.

We invest in human capital as well.

Well, before I was here at Van de Wetering, I had a trucking company, so that gave me a little bit of an advantage as far as the trucking and the drivers.

Our drivers represent Van de Wetering.

You know, I go see customers every year, but maybe it's once or twice.

Our drivers are there every week, so they are the most important representatives of our company, and they give us feedback as well.

So we really take a lot of pride in our drivers, and our customers tell us as well that they feel really comfortable.

The drivers come in on the weekends, they set the carts up, they take the empties back, they know where the heat is in the greenhouses, and they really understand the business because finding drivers on a temporary basis doesn't really work, so all of our drivers are year-round.

They've been here for 20, 25 years, and we put a lot of value in those drivers.

Well, Gold Supply, when it first came about, I remember talking to Jason Hough, and we were talking about 100% order fill.

That's the game.

You know, that's what we're doing.

That's what we're about every day, that every tray in this greenhouse is for a customer.

We have a very high bar here that everyone understands that this is the expectation.

Those are the expectations that we set.

Something that we're very proud of, our order fill, and when something goes wrong, everyone here is going to know about it.

Well, Ball Seed is a global family business.

You know, at the end of the day, you know, Anna Ball is still the owner, you know, and she still runs a family business, and I can call her tomorrow or go to West Chicago and walk into her office, and that means a lot because you're part of something bigger than yourself, and that's really the Ball supply chain, and that's really about the people in West Chicago, whether it's customer service, whether it's sales force.

You know, there's not a square foot of land in the United States of America that a Ball Seed rep is not covering.

So for us, having that coverage across North America is very important because we need to be here.

We can't be out in the field when we're doing what we're doing, and it's about the people.

We just try to continue that partnership.

We know what Ball stands for, is making the customer right.

It's all about the customer.

Make sure they're okay because you are a major factor in the success of their business.

That's where your motivation comes from, you know, because this is a hard business.

It's not easy.

It's not for the faint of heart, you know, and every season, we look at it as we're starting from scratch, and you've got to earn that business every year, and you're not entitled to anything.

So, you know, we focus on every year learning from last year and getting better, and every year you come here, you walk through the door, and you say, okay, what do I got to do to make this better?

And if you keep doing that, good things will happen.