FORT MADISON – The diligence of three friends and co-workers has secured the immediate future of a long-standing member of the Fort Madison business community.
Matt Mohrfeld, owner and operator of Matt’s Greenhouse, has agreed to sell his family’s operation to two long-time friends and business partners in Ty Louck and Ted Goldie.
Matt’s Greenhouse is now known as TNT Greenhouse, LLC and will be owned by the families of Louck and Goldie.
Mohrfeld said he started the process of selling the business about two years ago.
“We then had the value of the business determined and that’s an elaborate process. You do an asset valuation, and income valuation, and other comparables, and we put an offer to sell out to a couple organizations. Ty and Ted being one, and then another group,” Mohrfeld said.
Mohrfeld, who also serves as the city’s mayor, said both groups were interested, but selling to Louck and Goldie made more sense. Louck and Mohrfeld got their start working for Phil Beebe’s operation in the late 70s.
“There’s an odd connection there that keeps going round and round. And Ty does exactly what we did, just a different customer base, so it’s a very logical transition,” Mohrfeld said. “These guys sat down and said, 'We’re interested.”
Mohrfeld said after 46 years of being in business, he could count on one hand the number of greenhouses that sold based on profit rather than those that were stressed.
Louck said one of the priorities he discussed with Goldie prior to making the purchase was the importance of keeping local employees and the local impact of Matt’s Greenhouse.
“Part of the reason we talked about buying it was keeping employees. If someone from out of state bought it, they may just bring in their own people,” Louck said.
“We’re going to combine everything. I’ll grow things I haven’t grown in the past. We wanted to keep it local and around here. It does a lot for the community . We wanted to keep that all together.”
Goldie said everything points to the new company growing in the next five years.
“Everything points to us growing. How big and how fast is yet to be determined, but everything points to us needing more product to service our area,” Goldie said.
“As we grow and the cost of everything goes up, we’ll get a few more square foot in here and then expansion. We are going to look at building more greenhouses, purchasing more greenhouses, and all of the above to fill our needs.
He said part of that growth is their partnership with Dan & Jerry’s Greenhouse out of Monticello, Minn.
“That has been a really, really good partnership and they have been supportive of Ty and me taking over,” he said.
Louck said the software involved in Mohrfeld’s operation will be part of the learning curve for him, but Goldie has been part of Mohrfeld’s operations for more than a dozen years so he’s versed in the software.
Mohrfeld will stay on for a couple years as a consultant and to help them manage the larger footprint as they get acclimated to the larger business model with an eye toward growth and expansion.
”We don’t plan on sitting still by any means," Louck said. “We have a customer base in place to continue to keep our sales and to grow."
He said with his operations included, the business will now occupy about 10 acres combined in three different locations in the county.
Goldie said aside for a few years as an auto service manager, he’s been in the greenhouse business since he graduated from college.
”Right out of college, I went to work for Ty for eight or nine years and then had a little stint in the car business. Matt reached out to me at one point and said he was looking for someone and we sat down and talked. And I’ve been here for the past 13 years.
The newly formed company will employ about 75 people during the peak season. The annual garden centers at Fareway will now be called Lucy’s Flowers after Louck and Goldie's grandmother, and will be operated by Louck’s daughters Morgan Pieper and Samantha Louck.
Mohrfeld and Louck said they weren’t competitors in the field. They sold to different markets and actually worked together on purchasing. They both sold within a 200-mile radius to farm stores, grocery stores, and independent flower shops and garden centers, selling bedding plants, hanging baskets, and patio pots.
Mohrfeld and Louck started in the greenhouse industry in the late 70s under the leadership of Beebe’s Greenhouse.
In 1977 Mohrfeld started The Flower Cottage and, in 1982, that transitioned into Matt’s Greenhouse and Flower Cottage.
In 1992, Louck established Ty’s Greenhouse.
Goldie worked for Louck from 1995-96 and then again from 1998-2008. Goldie’s wife Mindy, is the daughter of Jim and Linda Baier, founders of Jim Baier Ford. Goldie worked for the Baier family at the auto dealership for a while and then went back into the greenhouse industry as Operations Manager for Mohrfeld from 2013-2023.
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