File:Florists' review (microform) (1912) (16498214717).jpg

Title: Florists' review (microform)
Identifier: 5205536_49_6 (find matches)
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Floriculture
Publisher: Chicago : Florists' Pub. Co
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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HEAD OF OHIO CHAIN G2ES2 S252SE525252S^SS2SS2SS52S2 HOW ZETUTZ BUILT CHAIN. Heads Eight Establishments. The chain store idea has found a champion with remarkable organizing ability in this trade, if the aggregation of eight Ohio greenhouse ranges—three at Dayton, two at Lima, one at Middle- ton, one at Ada and one at Columbus— may be considered as sufficient material evidence of the accomplishments of Rolf Zetlitz. Mr. Zetlitz came from Norway in 1892 with his father, who established himself in a small greenhouse at Lima, O. Young Rolf was then only a boy 8 years old, but he was a great help to his father and it was here that he learned to love flowers and laid the foundation for the brilliant career which lay before him. When but 17 years of ago he left Lima and went to Chicago, where ho secured employment in a large green- house establishment. His knowledge of plants soon won him a position of re- sponsibility. His intense desire to get on in the world, however, led him two years later to undertake the establish- ment of a business of his own. With $300, his entire savings, in his pocket, he returned to Lima, 0., and engaged in business in direct competition with his father. The fact that either he or his father might starve to death as a result of two greenhouses in a town the size of Lima never entered the younger man's head, because he believed that the outside world was large enough for all of the flowers that could be grown. His climb to success was the subject of a feature story in the Dayton News recently. When asked how his first venture succeeded, he said, "I'll tell you how much of a competitor I was to my fa- ther. I took in just $42 the first mouth I was in business. I didn't go out and hunt for business when I started in. I went where I knew the business was •—I set up right across the street from the Lima cemetery. Throe hundred dol- lars was precious little capital when it was all going out and nothing coming in, but I sold my flowers and kept my stock from freezing, and soon had :i comfortable start, as f;ir as growing plants were concerned. Hail Destroys Range. When I had accumulated a little money I went over to Ada, O., and bought a greenhouse that was specializ- ing in roses. That move was a success from the start. My rose business grew by leaps and bounds. Then one Oc- tober day, about four years ago, a ter- rific hail storm hit the outskirts of Ada and seemed to center right over my greenhouses. I had an investment of $30,000 there. The hail storm lasted three minutes and when it was over all T had was a mass of broken glass and twisted timbers, all lying on top of my stock. "For a whole day (I don't think it was longer than that) it seemed to me the world was running backward. Then I remembered that I started once with nothing and still had my best asset, good health, so I determined to show my own little part of the world that a thing like a hail storm couldn't make a quitter out of me. I looked over the mess in Ada and turned my steps to- ward Dayton. I wanted to get the at- mosphere of a town tliat had been wiped off the map and then, rising and brushing the mud off herself, had builded bigger than before. I came to Dayton and bought a florist's estab- lishment. Continued Expansion. "That was just three years ago. Since then I have replaced the Ada range, enlarged it and added a retail store, and 1 have bought out another competitor in Lima. I didn't quit there, but went over to sec how father was getting along, found him ready to retire and bought his business. "Back to Dayton, with my sleeves rolled up, I found the town possessed of the very fighting spirit I needed, and I sort of absorbed more than my share. One day a year ago I called on Warren G. Matthews, Dayton's pioneer florist. Everybody knows Warren and his sunny disposition. But when I dropped in, Warren was suffering with an ag- gravated attack of the blues. He had reasoned it out that he'd been in the business long enough and when he said he thought he'd sell out and I asked for his figures, the sun seemed to start shining again. To make a long story short, I bought his establishment the same day I asked for his figures. Buys a Coal Mine. There are two grave things to con- sider in growing flowers for the trade. One is hail and the other is low tem- perature. Last winter, when a coal famine was threatened and when coal prices promised to land up around $15 a ton, it occurred to me that I had bought insurance against hail, but I hadn't insured against frost. So I bought a coal mine at Nelsonville, O. It isn't a whopper of a mine, but we take from three to six carloads a day out of it, or did up to a few months ago, when the coal market shifted to the point where we could buy West Vir- ginia coal laid down in Dayton cheaper than we could load it on the cars at Nelsonville. "The coal mine bought, T turned my attention to the Columbus field, as we were developing a wonderful business" throughout that region. I looked over the greenhouse establishments there- and bought one, the biggest of those of
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Rolf Zetlitz.

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