Roger Kehoe

Horticultural Sales and Production Management Expert

 

• Created sales growth through new business opportunity development.
• Implemented new product development genetic applications to grow bottom line sales.
• Designed production processes that support new and established retail production programs, and provided training in these processes through live presentations and webinars.
• Cultivated excellent relationships with new and existing clients through interpersonal and communication skills, site visits, grower training, team building, consensus building, and GoTo meetings and webinars.
• Applied broad experience in production and sales of annuals, perennials, foliage and seasonal potted flowering plants.

 

Strategic Business Skills:  Operations Management, Sales Analysis, Strategic Planning, New Product Development, Budget Creation and Implementation, Business-to-Business Consultative Sales, Contract Negotiation, Sales Forecasting, Staff and Customer Training and Development.

 

Horticultural Sales and Operations Skills:  Horticultural Production, Production Planning, Floricultural Training, Production Network Management

Key Industry Accomplishments

 

• Created and managed marketing opportunities with key accounts in large retail and landscape programs. Resulted in 5% sales growth in stagnant market and positioned one customer to be the largest volume account.
• Visited key accounts throughout North America, increasing brand and specific product awareness through live presentations, trial development at universities and growers’ facilities. Wrote and distributed technical information directly to customers, broker sales representatives, and trade magazines.
• Worked with a licensed sub-contractor production network in producing plant culture within defined specifications, inventory management, pricing contracts, space planning and allocation.
• As a technical horticultural trainer, organized and executed floriculture seminars and webinars for national and regional growers’ production programs.
• Managed a network of international licensed production companies in B2B processes and advanced agronomic cultural practices.

 

Work Experience

Costa Farms Miami, FL                                     (September 2013 to February 2018)

• Led the oversight of seed and vegetative production business for Florida and North Carolina farm sites. This included management of the Total Growth Solutions (TGS) plug sales through a broker sales network.
• Turned around declining sales to double digit increase.
• Fine-tuned key supply chain components to add value of specific crop items and improve service to provide growth.
• Managed division budget, goals, and objectives.
• Reduced losses in the young plant division by almost 50%. Utilized process analysis and improved production techniques to simultaneously improve quality.
• Reduced business risks by minimizing claims and losses, and improving downstream product performance.
• Reduced costs by reducing grow times and shrink through process improvements. This increased production capacity with no capital expense.
• Built a team of internal and external experts to assemble a high yield, high quality hibiscus stock program in just two years.
• Managed and collaborated with consultants and staff to define production goals, and analyze and document all production processes to optimize quality and minimize shrink and costs.
• Worked closely with and consulted to an offshore sister company to produce great volumes of high quality starter material from a large stock base.
• Oversaw hiring and training of plug growers, vegetative propagation growers, head growers, operations managers, and customer service representatives. Updated and created new job descriptions to support re-structuring and organizational development.
• Worked with vendors to define and implement improvements in supply chain starter materials.
• Led major automation implementation utilizing Autostix™ for the propagation production line. Worked closely with vendors to leverage continuous process improvement to meet the project’s goals.
• Refined and built new audit procedures to evaluate key production processes to maintain quality specifications through the whole production process.

Ecke Ranch Encinitas, CA                                             (January 1997 to April 2013)

Senior Key Account Sales Manager (2006 to April 2013)

• Developed business opportunities with key accounts in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions for a 100 year old plant breeding and production company.
• Created and managed marketing opportunities with key accounts in large retail and landscape programs. Resulted in overall 5% sales growth in stagnant market; specific product unit sales of one item increased over 500%.
• Landscape poinsettia program grew from 100k unit sales to over 1m.
• Performed product evaluations and trial analysis for proper product market placement.
• Created and disseminated a weekly technical product bulletin to all regional customers to enhance market presence and provide customer support.
• Implemented claims reduction through customer support and internal process improvement. Achieved 30% claim reduction through site visits, product evaluation and replacement, and customer production training.
• Designed and implemented product evaluations at customer sites throughout the US and Canada, and initiated product utilization from these trials.
• Presented technical and product information at trade shows and grower events in the US and Canada.
• Guest speaker and trade magazine writer.

 

Technical Sales Manager (2005 to 2006)

• Developed sales growth in North American market through technical customer support and product implementation.
• Created and trained staff for new technical services manager position.
• Developed new key account strategies for sales growth.
• Transitioned technical services to web-based customer support. Reduced staff hour needs by half while improving quality of service with web links. Evolved to be the most widely-used industry flora-culture bulletin board with over 1200 signed-in accounts. 

 

General Manager North America Operations (2004 to 2006)

• Managed Encinitas and offsite production facilities. Created and managed budgets.
• Negotiated offsite production contracts resulting in quality improvement and cost reduction.
• Oversaw production quality and implemented improved production standards.
• Supervised and trained staff of over 250 employees responsible for plant production, pest management, logistics, and facilities maintenance.

 

Production Manager    (2002 to 2004)

• An upgraded position which included Head Grower activities, all operations planning, product development, production support, maintenance, space and labor planning, and offsite contractor support. Traveled to Guatemala for technical production support and training to our offshore team.

 

Head Grower   (2000 to 2002)

• Led staff of seven growers and their assistants in plant propagation, stock production, and finishing programs.

 

Propagation Manager (1997 to 2000)

• Ran the largest and most comprehensive poinsettia propagation program in the world.

 

 

Plant Propagation Grower, Garden State Growers, Pittstown, NJ                   1995 to 1997

• Managed growers to develop a state of the art propagation program for seed plugs, annuals, and perennial stock and cuttings.

 

 

Proprietor,  Arkay Greenhouses Quakertown, NJ                                             1974 to 1996    

• Established a wholesale/retail greenhouse and florist business during college.  Purchased and relocated to a farm; and ran the expanding enterprise successfully for 17 years. 

 

 

Education and Training

 

Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ

Bachelor of Science degree in ornamental horticulture, floriculture specialty

 

• Certified in advanced Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Proficient with both iOS and Windows operating systems.
• Languages: Spanish (intermediate), French (intermediate).