When Mark Thiessen got his first e-mail order for a dozen red roses he knew instinctively that the World Wide Web would be his ticket to success. This happened on Aug. 2nd, 1996 when he was sitting in the veranda of his grandfather Jacob Thiessen’s house, in front of a computer. Previous to this Mark had used email systems such as the Mennonet, dial up services, and the ‘bulletin board’, all of which were slow, cumbersome, and didn’t reach the potential customers. This time Mark knew that he had finally made contact with them, because the response to his web site was fast. There were millions of people out there wanting to buy red roses, some perhaps even desperately, and Mark knew he had given them the simplest possible way of getting them, a way that led right to his greenhouses.
Of course nobody could know for sure what was going to happen. When Mark told his father Peter and his brother Andrew about the order that day, they responded in a rather disinterested manner: “Ok, good,” they said. After all, one dozen red roses won’t get you very far. Two days later another order arrived, to be shipped out by Fed Ex. Soon the demand for the Hybrid Teas and Sweethearts outstripped the ability of the farm to supply them. Mark’s intuition had proven correct. Peter Thiessen then gave his boys the best gift a father could give them: the help they needed to get into the business they wanted to run, in spite of its risk. They knew that the flower business was a highly competitive business.
The high number of orders for the roses led to a great demand for fuel because flowers require warmth, and our winters are long and cold. The costs of growing the roses soon threatened to sabotage the entire operation and therefore Mark, Andrew, and father Peter had to make a timely decision, which was to buy the flowers elsewhere. Peter Thiessen found this hard to accept at first because all of his life he had grown flowers on his farm and now his greenhouse would be devoid of the plants he loved. He was however very supportive of his boys’ decision and soon the flowers for GrowerFlowers.com were to be obtained from suppliers in South America and California where the climate is warmer and more suitable for growing flowers.
The Thiesen operation now supplies fifteen varieties of roses in a highly competitive market which includes 93 suppliers of roses. Growerflowers.com ships flowers directly to consumers from farms located in Canada and the USA. The greenhouses are now being rented out for vegetable growing. Twelve people are working on the Internet and two in the apple orchard.
Mark and Andrew’s grandfather, Jacob Thiessen, purchased the farm in 1933. Peter Thiessen, the boys’ father, took over in 1975, and the boys undertook to operate the farm in 2005. It is run as a family business being comprised of three companies: Thiessen Greenhouse Flowers Ltd., Thiessen Orchards, Ltd., and Growersflowers.com. This is the 75th year of farm operation.
Mark got married in 2004, being too busy he says until then. He and his wife Janet have a nine-month-old baby girl called Carly. Janet runs her own jewelry business from her home. Andrew married Krissy in 2003 and they have a two-year-old boy called Jack. Krissy works at Oak Street farms and helps out on the home farm in fall.
Mark says that the key to success is to never give up. Mark’s experience with computers began in high school in Mr. Lee’s classes where he learned computer programming and business. He and Andrew both attended the University of Guelph taking business courses.
Interview with Mark Thiessen, 2010
