Big Grower January 2022 - 4

COVER STORY
helped them find their way, he asked if they
would like to take a look at the property for
sale, which was an 800-acre parcel in Larkspur,
Colorado.
" They fell in love and bought it, " says Aaron.
" They came back from vacation, told the
family that we're selling the business here in
Pennsylvania, we're going to move to Colorado
and retire. "
Eighteen months later, the family was in
Colorado. Arie retired, but couldn't sit still for
too long. A year went by before he built a threeacre
range that is now Dutch Heritage Gardens.
Before becoming Dutch Heritage, however,
Arie built a greenhouse and called it Cherry
Creek Growers. At the age of 15, Aaron was
running a night shift crew made up of college
kids. " I loved it, " Aaron shares. " I had a knack
for managing and for growing plants. I had a
passion for it and loved managing crews
of people. "
Fast forward a few years, Arie partnered with
local grower Mitch McDonald to create a new
company called Rocky Mountain Growers. At
21, Aaron was working as a general manager
with the company when he decided he wanted
to branch out and do his own thing. He moved
to Ohio and worked as a greenhouse general
manager for a few years.
During Aaron's time in Ohio, Rocky Mountain
Growers was sold to Color Star Growers, as
Arie wanted to focus more on his 80 acre
hydroponic tomato company: Sunblest Farms.
However, Arie knew his son wanted to run his
own company and asked Aaron if he would
like to return to Colorado and purchase the
original facility he built on the 800-acre parcel
in Larkspur, as it had not been part of the sale
to Color Star.
So, in 2006, Aaron and his wife Rozalia
moved to Colorado, purchased the building
and property, and Dutch Heritage Gardens
was born.
TARGET MARKET AND STRATEGY
From day one, Aaron and Rozalia - who
are 50/50 owners of the company - shared a
vision and knew they wanted to differentiate
themselves from the big box market. Rozalia,
too, has a background in horticulture. Born in
Bulgaria, she was a horticulture major working
in the United States on a school program, which
brought her to Rocky Mountain Growers where
she met Aaron. She had a keen eye for color and
design, he says.
" We had both seen challenges from growers
selling to big box stores ... and we didn't want to
go that route, " says Aaron. " Our vision was to go
after the grocery store market. They have foot
traffic, but no one goes there to plan their garden
out. They go to buy milk, bread and eggs. "
He and Rozalia asked themselves, " What can
we offer them that's different than what they
could get at a big box store? " And that is how
they came up with their claim to fame. They
created a whole lineup of container gardens,
which they call instant gardens, that appealed to
the do-it-for-me generation.
" They don't have time to get their hands dirty
in the garden and take something from a four4
JANUARY 2022
pack and cultivate it for the next three or four
months until it grows into a beautiful flower, "
Aaron says. " We were going after the younger
generation with 'impulse buy' items, so they
could purchase an instant container that has
different colors and textures of plants, and put
it out on their front porch or the balcony of
their apartment. "
As marketing and brand manager, Rozalia put
together 30 to 40 different recipes and paired
them with decorative containers. They put the
recipes in the back of their van and pitched
them to the local grocery chains. At the time,
Aaron says, everybody was using black, white,
terra cotta or green plastic. That was the norm,
and they wanted to offer something fresh with
instant appeal - the whole package.
The buyer for the King Soopers chain (owned
by parent company Kroger) was particularly
impressed, and immediately placed an order.
" We built a production model to service their
[153] stores with the different combinations he
liked, and we did the same thing with Albertsons,
another grocery chain at the time. So that was 2
million customers right out the gate. "
After a few years, King Soopers - happy
with the partnership and the product quality -
asked Aaron if he would like to have 100% of
their outdoor offerings, which included hanging
baskets, gallon perennials, zonal geraniums,
etc. There was just one caveat; Dutch Heritage
could no long service competing grocery
chains. Aaron made the deal, and they went
from $800,000 in King Soopers sales that year
to $3.5 million the following year. Today their
business has grown to over $10 million with
King Soopers.
" The business has grown exponentially
together, " says Aaron. " We formed a very
good partnership. I don't think there's many
growers that can deliver two times a week to
150 locations like we do. We built our logistics
Dutch Heritage Gardens is currently adding 5 acres of growing space to accommodate both
flower and hemp sales, bringing the total to 15 acres.
Big Grower January 2022

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