Our company was featured in a column “Episode” in the Kochi’s local newspapers on July3rd. Here is the article.
PROGRESSIVE SPIRIT – NAKAMURA-NOEN
“I was sure that demand for lily will certainly increase if growers can supply lily flowers year around.”
The present president of Nakamura-Noen in Kochi City, Mr. Hiroshi Nakamura, had this perspective when he succeeded his family business after working for a major insurance company.
And he actually executed the plan. His company quickly started dealing in PQ-free Dutch lily bulbs, and installed cool storage system to make it possible to supply bulbs throughout the year.
Moreover, they explored to import from the southern hemisphere and trying to make the quality better. Lily flowers became more common mainly for ceremonial occasions as Mr. Nakamura expected, and his business grew 4 times bigger.
However, Mr. Nakamura’s expression when he talks about the nowadays conditions is not so bright.
“Young people are not interested in enjoying flowers in their lives very much. Japan’s market of flower came to 70% compared to its peak.”
There are also problems of aging of flower growers and lack of successors.
Considering these situations, Mr. Nakamura has an idea of cut flower production. Nakamura-Noen built their own test green house in 2007 to study know-how of growing. They store every data – growth, sunlight, watering and so on – and use the knowledge to bring over 400 varieties to bloom at a same time of “Lily Festa” which is held in June every year. The staffs are working hard to satisfy demands of customers who are trying to make domestic lily production bigger, and to develop the growing technology. Such Staffs’ effort also pushes Mr. Nakamura forward.
Progressive spirit trying new things according to the changes of times make the company bigger. Nakamura-Noen has ridden on the globalization, and now going to change in this aging population and low birthrate. We would like to watch how this small (21 people including him), but international company will do from now.
