C.M. Hobbs Inc. combines old-fashioned values with modern technology

With nearly 200 years of service, C.M. Hobbs Inc. stands like a historical marker among the Midwest’s green industry companies. The Indianapolis landscape distributor continues to uphold its centuries-old practice of exceptional customer service while adopting modern techniques.

In 2002, the company transitioned from a grower to a rewholesale operation. By the late 1990s, the market was changing and the company had a difficult decision to make -- grow or shrink the business.

“I felt we were too big to be little and too little to be big,” said Gordon A. Hobbs, the fourth generation at the helm.

The change “better fit our capabilities and resources,” Hobbs said.

The nursery sold parcels of its 400 acres during the course of a decade and saved 15 acres for its new venture. Hobbs and his team were fortunate to build the rewholesale yard and buildings from the ground up, rather than retrofit existing structures.

The attention to detail is apparent from the moment a customer passes through the gate. There is room for semis in the parking lot. A portable loading dock allows the company to load and unload product anywhere in the yard, reducing product movement. The yard is tidy and free of debris. Signs clearly mark all crops. And the office features a drive-through window where customers check in and out in the comfort of their vehicles.

Technology partners

The staff uses tablet PCs from Motion Computing for real-time inventory, fulfillment and billing. Sales reps in the yard and support personnel inside the office are linked with a wireless connection. An outdoor antennae on one the building relays a signal anywhere in the yard. A barcode reader connects to the tablet PCs with Bluetooth technology. With a few clicks in the field, a sales order is transmitted to the office and is waiting for a customer at checkout. The system takes a load off of office personnel.

Hobbs uses the Maxwell Management suite distribution and accounting system.

The tradition continues

C.M. Hobbs serves landscape contractors, garden centers, architects, developers, municipalities and golf courses throughout Indiana and parts of Illinois. The company buys in about two-thirds of its plant material for immediate sale and the balance is potted or shifted up on site. Container sizes range from 1 to 25 gallons. Most of the trees are balled-and-burlapped and are sold from 1- to 3-inch caliper. Hobbs also sells hard goods such as soil, compost, gravel and fertilizer.

The company also offers custom growing and potting services.

Hobbs is quick to credit his staff with the company’s success. And a roster of employees has been with him for decades. Brothers Larry and Garry Fisher have worked at C.M. Hobbs for more than 40 years. Garry is the shipping supervisor and Larry is the nursery manager. Loretta Walland, accounts receivable, and Mel Tabor in sales have been with the company for more than 20 years.

Because C.M. Hobbs has been around for almost two centuries, the company has been evolving with the market throughout its history. In its infancy, the nursery sold mostly fruit trees, and its specialty was Montmorency Pie cherry trees. Fruit trees eventually gave way to conifers and ornamentals.

During World War II, the nursery used German prisoners of war from Rommel’s Africa corps, Hobbs said. And plow horses were replaced by mechanization in the 1950s.

C.M. Hobbs Inc.

Founded: In 1812 by Benjamin Albertson. Cyrus May Hobbs (Albertson’s son-in-law) took over the business in 1879. Gordon Hobbs is the fourth generation at the nursery. Becker Landscape, a large Indianapolis-based landscape contractor, purchased the company in February 2005.

Location: Indianapolis.

Production/sales space: 15 acres.

Market: Rewholesale operation serving landscape contractors, municipalities, garden centers, universities and builders throughout Indiana and parts of Illinois.

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For more: C.M. Hobbs Inc., (317) 837-8301; www.cmhobbs.com.

- Kelli Rodda

August 2008