where is the seed


As you no doubt noticed, we were short some seed products and totally out of others for a good part of January. Our supplier, the Audubon Park Company of Akron CO, had been mixing, bagging and delivering bird seed to small and large bird seed outlets for decades. But Audubon Park was bought out by a large conglomerate, Global Harvest Foods, last year. Apparently Global Harvest had a different agenda. Without any warning, we were advised right after Christmas that Audubon Park would no longer deliver seed to its small clients and that we would need to arrange for delivery ourselves. We made several trips up to Akron to bring seed to the store and were in the process of making long term delivery arrangements when Global Harvest, again without warning, announced it was immediately stopping all seed production for its small customers. We then contacted our franchise headquarters and we were told we could get seed from Burkmann Seed in Bowling Green KY. And, with the help of our long time seed agent who was scurrying around to find a new supplier, we found we could get some product from another source here in Colorado. However, because so many small businesses were suddenly needing seed, these two new suppliers had to make some adjustments to their operations to accommodate everyone. And, of course, we had to get delivery schedules worked out. So, there were some glitches and shortcomings that had to be suffered through. At this time, however, we have plenty of seed and the pipeline is now open to keep seed coming to us. All of this occurred on the heels of substantial wholesale price increases effective right after Christmas. We had just finished adjusting our prices when the supplier crisis hit. That required another price review. Fortunately, in many cases, we were able to roll back some of the recently price increases despite the fact that the cost of transporting seed to us can be as high as $3.20 per bag. We did this by carefully analyzing our costs from the various suppliers and by lowering our profit margin. Thanks for hanging in there with us. We will continue to do everything we can to obtain the high quality birdseed you have become accustomed to at the best possible prices. We look forward to continuing to meet all of your bird feeding and bird watching needs.

As you no doubt noticed, we were short some seed products and totally out of others for a good part of January. Our supplier, the Audubon Park Company of Akron CO, had been mixing, bagging and delivering bird seed to small and large bird seed outlets for decades. But Audubon Park was bought out by a large conglomerate, Global Harvest Foods, last year. Apparently Global Harvest had a different agenda.

Without any warning, we were advised right after Christmas that Audubon Park would no longer deliver seed to its small clients and that we would need to arrange for delivery ourselves. We made several trips up to Akron to bring seed to the store and were in the process of making long term delivery arrangements when Global Harvest, again without warning, announced it was immediately stopping all seed production for its small customers.

We then contacted our franchise headquarters and we were told we could get seed from Burkmann Seed in Bowling Green KY. And, with the help of our long time seed agent who was scurrying around to find a new supplier, we found we could get some product from another source here in Colorado. However, because so many small businesses were suddenly needing seed, these two new suppliers had to make some adjustments to their operations to accommodate everyone. And, of course, we had to get delivery schedules worked out. So, there were some glitches and shortcomings that had to be suffered through. At this time, however, we have plenty of seed and the pipeline is now open to keep seed coming to us.

All of this occurred on the heels of substantial wholesale price increases effective right after Christmas. We had just finished adjusting our prices when the supplier crisis hit. That required another price review. Fortunately, in many cases, we were able to roll back some of the recently price increases despite the fact that the cost of transporting seed to us can be as high as $3.20 per bag. We did this by carefully analyzing our costs from the various suppliers and by lowering our profit margin.

Thanks for hanging in there with us. We will continue to do everything we can to obtain the high quality birdseed you have become accustomed to at the best possible prices. We look forward to continuing to meet all of your bird feeding and bird watching needs.

Wild Bird Center of Colorado Springs Colorado