Stuart Cofer encounters frequent affirmations that persuade him he went into the suitable line of labor approach again when.
And as his household enterprise – Cofer’s Residence & Backyard Showplace – celebrates its one centesimal anniversary in Athens, Cofer mirrored on the issues that change and the issues that keep the identical.
“You look across the Athens space and also you see your vegetation in someone’s yard and I do know they’re my vegetation as a result of we promote so many uncommon and distinctive vegetation I do know they got here from us,” mentioned Cofer, 62, who began working for his father on the age of 10. “If you see these vegetation 25 or 30 years later, you get a superb feeling understanding you helped beautify the Athens space and the belongings you promote go to make the atmosphere a gorgeous place.”
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Established within the fall of 1922 by Cofer’s grandfather H.L. Cofer on Lumpkin Avenue (simply down from the Georgia Theatre), the corporate has transitioned from a downtown seed and feed retailer to one of many space’s backyard and panorama leaders.
Now positioned on Mitchell Bridge Street, Cofer’s additionally held down two Broad Avenue addresses (the place Zombie Donuts and Cloud 9 Smoke and Vape Firm now reside), had a retailer on Atlanta Freeway, and for just a few years within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties had an outpost in downtown Gainesville.
Cofer’s been a household enterprise in each sense of the phrase. Stuart Cofer is the third era to run the enterprise (his father, Hal L. Cofer, and uncle, Donald Cofer, succeeded the founder) and as soon as his son Stephen graduates from the College of Georgia, he’ll maintain the familial chain robust.
“My son represents the fourth era of Cofers, and fewer than 4% of household companies make it that far,” he mentioned. “So it’s a fairly particular deal.”
Now in his forty third yr within the household enterprise, Stuart Cofer mentioned he started working for his father for 25 cents an hour, “making bins, cleansing up, serving to inventory cabinets, taking stuff to automobiles, watering vegetation.” He left Athens for about 5 years, working in Los Angeles and Atlanta, however got here residence for good in 1988. He mentioned his father and uncle had been liable for transitioning the enterprise from the seed-and-feed years.
“They made lots of modifications within the firm,” he mentioned, declaring that at one level there was a Cofer’s downtown and a Cofer’s on Atlanta Freeway. “They offered pots and pans and we even had a pet division at one time, had a lawnmower restore store inside the shop. They modified the shop as Athens modified.
“Once they began, Athens was nonetheless principally a farming group. Because the College grew and Athens received extra urbanized, the shop modified with it. My grandfather wouldn’t acknowledge the shop if he walked in right here in the present day and I credit score my father and my uncle Donald for the modifications.”
Stuart Cofer mentioned his uncle ran the Atlanta Freeway retailer and his father ran the downtown retailer till it closed in 1987.
“Once we closed downtown in 1987 we had been a full-fledged garden and backyard middle,” he mentioned. “So far as I do know, we’re the oldest family-run backyard retailer within the state of Georgia.”
When requested his ideas on attention-grabbing modifications within the enterprise he’s been in for many years, Stuart Cofer mentioned smaller gardens are infinitely extra standard than greater beds.
“Gardens have shrunk and smaller through the years,” he mentioned, including that the shop nonetheless had common prospects that traveled from Hartwell, Greensboro, Elberton and Gwinnett County. “We used to promote beans and peas and corn in pound packages and now we promote in quarter-pound or much less as a result of folks have smaller gardens.”
Stuart Cofer mentioned has no fast plans for retirement and added he nonetheless loves the work.
“I’ll in all probability work right here till I’m 70,” he mentioned. “I benefit from the job and we’ve received an excellent buyer base and nice workers. So it’s nonetheless enjoyable to work. As my son will get extra concerned and skilled within the enterprise finish I’ll begin easing again.
“I received’t do like my father, who was from the era born within the Melancholy years and he was a workaholic, actually six days every week most of his life. I’ve complete religion within the workers we’ve got right here and my son that they’ll run this firm simply pretty much as good, if not higher, than me. Then I’ll step again and let these guys benefit from the celebration.”
Cofer’s Residence & Backyard Showplace will host an open home March 25-27 and on April 19 will provide a seminar that includes landscaping concepts, profitable tomato cultivation and hydrangeas and different vegetation. For extra info on occasions, go to www.cofers.com.
