Continuous improvement a focus for flower pot molder

Ryan Mast dreamt of flying planes for a living. Naturally, he's running Bloem Living LLC, a growing Michigan-based company that makes plastic flower pots.

So much for dreams, right?

“I got my pilot's license in high school. In high school, it was primarily a reason to date women. You know, they always want to go on a date in an airplane,” Mast laughed.

Did he ever take a woman up in the air?

“Yes, in fact, I married her. She's the mother of our three children. That all worked out OK,” Mast said.

The 32-year-old CEO admits it's a long way from pilot to plastics. But a summer job in maintenance at his father's condominium development sparked Mast's idea for the underground sprinkler market. That project gave him insight into manufacturing overseas with a business venture he eventually abandoned. But it laid the groundwork for the creation of Bloem and domestic manufacturing.

With two silent partners with financial chops, some tools from China and a reliable custom molder, Mast set off small in 2012 with Bloem.

“It was my sister and I working out of our basement. Most of the time she'd work out of her home. I'd work out of my home. We had one main line that came in. We'd answer it and run it as professionally as we could. We often joked that if people really knew what they were calling into, the size of business they were doing business with, they'd have had a fit.”

Mast said the quality of Bloem's products and the relationships he forged with manufacturers were the keys to early success, even if success was $200,000 in sales in the final two months in 2012 selling two lines of plastic planters.

To say the company has grown considerably in four years would be an understatement. Bloem will generate between $40 million and $50 million in sales by year's end. The Hudsonville, Mich.-based firm has fueled its rapid rise with three acquisitions, positioning the injection molder well with national retailers, regional businesses and mom-and-pop hardware stores in what Mast calls the hard goods portion of the lawn and garden market.

The company has 400,000 square feet of manufacturing and distribution space in Apopka, Fla., near Orlando, thanks to the purchase this year of American Designer Pottery, a division of Fiskars Brands. Bloem also uses five custom molders in Illinois and Michigan to make products.

Mast said an acquisition in each of the last three years may have been the key for Bloem's rise, but he knows what will sustain the company and its 160 employees.

“The flower pot world isn't exactly one that's going to light on fire with innovation. We try the best that we can. At the end of the day, it's a product that holds dirt and you put flowers in it. There are minor tweaks to that. There are differences to approach. It comes down to being a reliable supplier and having the right product mix,” he said.

Mast said his partners' financial expertise has guided the three acquisitions with short-term debt financing, some mezzanine investors and cash.

Any more acquisitions on the horizon?

“We're always looking and we're open to it, but we're focused on our segment of the business and we want to make sure that it's not distracting to our core business. But if it's something that's a good add-on and makes sense for our customers, certainly.”

That caution seems justified given that the ADP/Fiskars purchase in January ballooned the company's employment from 10 to 160.

“We took on a lot. Considering how big a step it was for us, it's gone remarkably smooth,” said Mast, pointing to filling 10 additional positions in Michigan and implementing a new ERP system to bolster planning and resources.

Because of that purchase, Mast's work cycle now includes a week in Michigan, a week traveling to customers, a week in Florida. Repeat.

Mast points to e-commerce sales through its major retail clients as a growing portion of Bloem's business.

“We have a dot-com portion of the business and they're fulfilling these orders on a daily basis. Just a few individuals do this. I've watched the stack of boxes in season grow each year. They're processing several hundred packages a day, shipping direct to consumers across the country. It's a growing convenience factor for the consumer, no doubt about it.”

Mast says one of his strengths is building relationships with staff and customers. But what keeps this young executive up at night?

“For myself, it's continuous improvement. I want to make sure we don't let down our customers. That we're delivering better products, better service and that constantly is improving and never going the other direction.

“With our staff, I want to make sure they're seeing more from us as a company whether it's a safer, better work environment, more benefits peripherally, however we can improve their lives. It's a pressure point. That also comes on the vendor side as well. Whoever we do business with, I want to trust them and we want to get the most from the vendors we do business with. It's this continuous improvement and not sitting idly by that keeps me up,” Mast said.