All for One

PHILADELPHIA – Green industry suppliers made connections and promoted the expansion of the PrimeraTurf cooperative at the annual member meeting and trade show in Philadelphia. Coop members gathered in July to pick up new information on programs and products and meet with suppliers.

The member meeting skipped the regular trade show setup for individual discussions and planning for the season. Suppliers like SipcamAdvan, BASF and Monsanto met with the independent business representatives to look at the market with a focus on those distributors and a commitment to partnership among PrimeraTurf members.

Before those smaller meetings, John Gertz, PrimeraTurf CEO, covered member updates in the main session (see below), including products and member resources. Among those new products is APEX-10, an organic formula, manufactured by Nature’s Wonder in New Jersey and sold under the PrimeraOne brand, used to stimulate soil microbe populations and enhance nutrient uptakes in turf for sports, residential and sod turfs.

Gertz also announced the APEX-10 ROI Calculator, a web-based tool used to demonstrate the impact the product could have on a turf management program. The program is customizable to compare multiple turf fertility products’ costs and even takes into account water and energy usage. Nature’s Wonder also provided a series of training modules on the new product through their PrimeraTurf Partner website. The address also covered other PrimeraOne lines, including its Component nutritionals and Hydro-Trac for water management.

Independent revolution

By John Gertz

It was an empowering week seeing nearly 225 people in the turf and ornamental industry discuss growing business. It was also fulfilling seeing so much of the industry present at the meeting.

As part of PrimeraTurf’s core value proposition in supporting all categories of our owners’ business activities, we had continued support from our chemical suppliers and welcome new support from several basic chemical manufacturers, our strategic seed and fertilizer partners, and the support of our value add suppliers. I and the entire PrimeraTurf community want to say thank you again to all our suppliers for their support of the annual meeting, the PrimeraTuf organizations and our PrimeraTurf owners.

The real empowering part of this year’s meeting was seeing PrimeraTurf’s initiatives and new direction come to life. Nine months ago, PrimeraTurf laid out its strategic imperatives and business priorities. Each of these new initiatives directly supports our mission to grow our owners’ business and suppliers’ success with PrimeraTurf. The consistent feedback from our suppliers is that we are making real progress.

Suppliers commented on our energized approach to owner engagement and participation as clearly supporting their business.

This new communication tool enables quick, accurate direction and information on suppliers’ products and programs. Knowing what to buy and where you are on it is only half the story. The SPC numbers we saw clearly show PrimeraTurf owners strongly outpacing the industry.

Owners still look for all opportunities they can find to grow their business with their current and new customers. That is why we have our new market touch opportunity that is adding millions in new end user sales for PrimeraTurf owners.

Another area we highlighted as part of our growth was the new PrimeraOne Platinum technologies. To date we have 24 product offerings in the Platinum portfolio. A real success story in the Platinum portfolio is our exclusive APEX-10 and Component Fairway technologies.

These products have forged new member opportunity in the fertilizer category, and have allowed PrimeraTurf owners to service their customers with an exclusive industry advancement that represents an input cost and labor efficiency advantage for the end user.

We have also added online product training and education at PrimeraTurf.Coop. We will continue to add suppliers and PrimeraOne product training modules for our owners’ distributor sales reps. Owners can log in now for PrimeraOne APEX-10 training.