I joined my family’s irrigation supply business in 1985, just as they opened their 12th location, and the first outside of California. I guess you could say that expansion was part of my story at Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply from the very beginning. As the 3rd generation President & CEO of an Evergreen® family business that now spans 30 states, expansion–through organic growth and acquisition–has been the order of the day and has taught me a plain but profound lesson: one size does not fit all.

Irrigation supply is, in its simplest form, a low margin business. We stock about 3,500 different parts in each branch to enable us to have enough inventory to supply an average job. In California, we found that the population supported locations as close as a 20-30 minute drive apart, and the level of population density dictated how we transported our products, organized our teams, and stocked our warehouses. Our core customer valued proximity and the inventory moved quickly, so that drove our expansion within the state. When we set out to grow into Arizona, our California business model was working well, so we thought we had a solid plan.