The Dirt - September 2011 Issue

No, I haven’t lost my marbles. Not all of them, anyway. And I certainly am not one to rush the holidays (though a ski weekend sounds good to me any time of year).

When someone asked me what was up for September, I realized it was all about customers coming to town. Which means, of course, that the team and I are all about getting ready for those visits.






The second annual Dos Gringos Pack Trials are upon us. Fall is always a grand time of year for us and our products anyway, but the last two weeks of September give us an ideal opportunity to fluff the feathers a little and strut our stuff.

Aaron, Todd, Marco and I will spend the last two weeks of this month at Gringo Farms, a separate trial farm we have created in North County San Diego, CA to test new varieties and hold off-site brainstorming sessions with team members and clients alike.





Last year we conducted a week of Sunflower pack trials and tests with a number of different customers. We had seeds from hybridizers in the United States, Japan and Israel, and we displayed 20 different beds of Sunflower varieties – everything from natural white to bi-color to lemon Teddy Bears to some of the commercial varieties.

This year’s participants will get a look at the first-ever all-white and all-red Sunflowers plus a chance to see Pumpkin Tree and Purple Majesty plants pre-harvest, in their field plots.

We’ll provide an update on the entire DG Sunflower product line, including new varieties in development, and talk some about the benefit of good, solid forecasting (Plan & Plant).

And we’ll host some interactive discussions about the breeding/seed hybridizing process.

Make sure you bring those burning questions you’ve been dying to ask!









Haven’t registered yet for the Pack Trials? No worries. Contact joan.saunders@dosgringos.net to sign up.

On behalf of the whole team, we look forward to seeing you later this month!



Jason Levin
President & Chief Gringo













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Awards

Here at Dos Gringos we try to be the best company we can possibly be. We've been fortunate enough to receive some wonderful awards and recognition. We would like to say thank you for noticing our efforts and we'll continue to try our best each and everyday and always be improving.

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Award Presenter	Year	Award Type
	2011	Entrepreneur of the Year
Petals for Patriots - Wounded Warriors	2010	Commentation Plaque
	2010	Certificate of Commendation
	2010	Certificate of Commendation
	2009	Certificate of Appreciation
	2008	George A. Scott Award
	2008	Certificate of Appreciation
Veriflora Certified Sustainability	2008	Certificate of Achieviement
Veriflora Certified Sustainability	2008	Service of Excellence Award
	2008	PMA Impact Award

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The Dirt - August 2011 Issue

I love everything about summer. I hope you are wringing as much enjoyment out of yours as I am from mine. Morning runs before the temps rise, flowers, hikes in the mountains, flowers, weekends near water, flowers, corn on the cob, flowers, and a quick run for frozen yogurt as a nightcap. My son Jack recently learned that it’s “legal” to put more than one topping from the do-it-yourself bar on this confection of choice. The folks on counter clean-up hate us, but I still love summer – and flowers.



Out my window and along the road, the flowers still are decidedly summer. Open any of the DG coolers and you’ll still get a wonderful whiff of clover, asters, and strawflower. But the buzz is building about fall, and the fall shipping season begins in earnest at the end of this month.

I say it every year, and it continues to be true. The autumn months are an ideal showcase for Dos Gringos’ quality and expertise. We’ve got the product, the design and the drive to make this season shine. To that end, we’re putting the finishing touches on fall crops and harvest schedules to ensure we can meet all of our commitments. And we’re buying seed and making final planting decisions about Thanksgiving. We expect Sunflowers in all varieties and colors to be fantastic. Pumpkin Tree, Millet, Broomcorn, and Chili Pepperswill be available starting in September. Do we know what you need for Thanksgiving? Reach out to the DG sales team so we can help your business hum at this spectacular time of year.





I’m just back from a trip to northern California to check in and catch up with our Sunflower seed hybridizer. Growing never-before-seen varieties of Sunflowers is a fascinating lesson in patience and perseverance – and biotechnology. So many things must come together and work “just so” before we can put a natural red or white Sunflower on our order form. It could take a crossing of almost 200 different lines to yield ONE commercial-grade product! It turns out that bees, whose procreation and pollination are critical to Sunflower production, aren’t a bit interested in Dos Gringos’ growth goals or production schedule. Who knew?


The dream is very much alive, and we continue to test several colors both with our genius hybridizer and at our test farms near our corporate office. You’ll see some at our pack trials this fall, and some are almost ready for semi-commercial trials. We’re also learning more about Sunflower strength and longer vase life. Much more to come on that…




I’m on the road again in August to visit customers in the East this month to learn as much as I can about what’s driving business right now and how Dos Gringos can help. Several DG Business Development Managers will be moving about the country as well to participate in various client shows and show off our current product lines.




I’ll end with a quick shout-out to all the wholesalers I had a chance to catch up with at Fun ‘n Sun in July. I thoroughly enjoyed being back in touch with old friends and being on the floor to hear what’s going on in that market. “Faster and fresher to final destination” is a big priority of The California Flower Association, and of course, ours too. We see lots of opportunity for getting Dos Gringos bouquets into smaller, regional markets of the country, and we know some of our wholesalers can help. We’re working on it!


From Fukushima to all over Japan. They have now sent seeds to 13,000 locations in Japan and people are growing them all over.




Garden club volunteers from all over San Diego gathered at Dos Gringos and, combined with a group from South County made 700 bouquets which were distributed to military hospitals and care homes from the donated flowers from the show.







Picture is of Charlotte Fan, North County Manager for MOW.

We donated all the tabletoppers and bouquets for their gala last month!







Enjoy this last month before school starts – and start thinking fall flowers!





Jason Levin

President & Chief Gringo













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The Dirt - July 2011 Issue

A belated “Happy Independence Day” to all! We hope everyone enjoyed a nice, relaxing long weekend with family and friends.





As summer heats up – looks like Mother Nature finally found that “On” switch -- it’s time for some serious Fun ‘N Sun, and we look forward to seeing many of you at the semi- annual California floral convention running July 20-23 in the La Costa Resort in Carlsbad. I’ll be in the Dos Gringos booth with Marco Rivera and Rich Fruman on Friday the 22nd. We’ll have plenty of California-grown items to show, and we’ll be happy to discuss the latest and greatest innovations meant to keep us Number One in freshness. Grower Bunches and our Just Add collections are great florist items; check them out as well. Because we’re Dos Gringos, we like to think the “Sun” in Fun ‘N Sun is all about Sunflowers, so we’ll be showing off at least some of the most impressive varieties this summer.



See a Promo Video of Rene van Rems at IFE last month! (from flowersandcents.com)

http://www.flowersandcents.org/index.php?topic=4117.msg43570#msg43570






While you’re in town for the show, don’t miss a guided tour of our operations in Vista. Joan Saunders will be meeting and greeting clients throughout the four-day show; if you’d like to set something up ahead of time please reach out to her at joan.saunders@dosgringos.net.

Can't make it? Take a Virtual Tour on our site! (Click here)





This month features more work with our Total Quality Management (TQM) initiative. Many of you know that we’ve rolled out the program company-wide with the immediate goal of elevating customer service at every level of the organization. Our primary objectives are to:

• Fully understand and then satisfy our customers’ requirements;

• Establish a culture of “zero defects” and a passion for continuous improvement;

• Dissect critical processes to improve workflow;

• Use customer satisfaction as the ultimate measurement of quality.

We’ve created a Quality Council to steer our TQM work, and we’ve built eight Quality Improvement Teams to do a deep dive into key business processes, including raw material intake, grower standards, the cold chain process and sales forecasting. We’ve had some breakthroughs related to better-defined standards on our receiving docks and throughout the plant. Much more to report in the coming months…







On the family front, our own Gabe Gill (Plant Manager) will be married this month at the San Diego Botanical Gardens. Congratulations and best wishes, Gabe and India. I’m also getting a chance to recharge the batteries a little this month. A week off with the family included a 15-year anniversary celebration for Melissa and me. Fun fun!








Jason Levin
President & Chief Gringo






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