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Norman Herod established Herod Seeds in Richmond, Virginia at 201 Hull Street in
1979.
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Norman Herod
Norman had been in the seed business in Richmond since 1963, first opening
a branch for Green Seed Company, followed by becoming part owner of Wilson Feed
& Seed. After selling his shares and opening Herod Seeds, his first focus was to
selling contractors, farm & garden stores, hardware stores, and landscapers. The
business progressively grew, until 1987 when Ned Herod joined Herod Seeds making
it a true family business. Elaine Hoffman and Tom Forrester were added to the
staff shortly thereafter. The company steadily outgrew its facility on Hull
Street and in 1989 moved across the James River to a larger facility at 908
North 17th Street.
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| 908 Oliver Hill Way (17th Street) |
In
the late 80’s the company’s focus began to shift. The farm supply industry was
changing dramatically while the professional turf side was looking more
favorable. Herod Seeds redirected part of its focus to the golf course industry.
In 1993, Jim Williams was hired as our first outside sales representative
primarily working with golf courses. The golf course side of the business has
since grown dramatically. Herod Seeds’ long time commitment to quality
products, anchored by the entire staff’s commitment to service, seemed to mesh
well with this aspect of the professional turf business. We have been fortunate
to associate ourselves with suppliers that reflect this same commitment to the
industry. Some of these include Bayer, Syngenta, BASF, Milliken, The Andersons,
Turf Merchants, Hydro Kirby, Earthworks and Precision Laboratories.
In
the mid 90’s,Herod Seeds was firmly entrenched in Central Va. and Tidewater. We
decided to make our first concentrated effort into the Northern Virginia market
with the hiring of Steve Slominski. In 1997, following Steve’s success, Herod
Seeds opened its first branch in Manassas. Roland Murphy was hired to manage
this branch. This operation, led by Roland, has serviced the Northern Virginia,
DC, and Maryland markets for many years. Also, in the mid 90’s Danny Knaresboro
was “coaxed” off the golf course and became our outside sales representative for
Central Virginia. In 1999, Herod Seeds made a substantial commitment to the
tidewater area by hiring a dedicated outside sales representative and by opening
our third facility at 2682 Dean Drive. We have steadily grown in this facility
and have thoroughly enjoyed conducting business out of this facility that is
located near the coastal beach area. We were fortunate to hire Dave Lawson to
lead our efforts out of this branch in 2006. Mark McCaughan was hired to work
outside sales in Tidewater after being a successful superintendent for many
years.
As
the new millennium turned, Herod Seeds had evolved into the state’s leading
wholesale supplier of professional turf materials. Our landscaper business had
grown through the efforts of Eddie Wirt. Our municipality and government
business was doing well and we had become the largest hydro seeding supplier in
the state. Through Tom Forrester’s hard work we had also become one of Morton
Salts largest distributors east of the Mississippi River, some years moving 150
truckloads of salt products.
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| Ned and Norman |
2003
presented the landmark event in the history of Herod Seeds. The ownership
transferred from Norman Herod to his son Ned. As is the case with this
transition in any family business, this requires much love and patience. Well,
Ned and Norman got through it and both are doing great! In 2004 we were also
fortunate enough to hire Dean Denton to help us with inside and outside sales in
central Virginia. Dean has proven himself a huge asset and is doing a great job
with the landscape and sports turf markets.
2005
proved to be the year for Herod Seeds’ ֺnext geographical expansion. This time
we went west to Lynchburg. From this location we can service Charlottesville to
Greensboro to Roanoke to Harrisonburg. Jeff Williams is serving as the branch
manager. Jeff has many years experience in the turf industry, both growing grass
and selling it. Our outside sales in the southwest quadrant of the state are
being handled by Jim Wilson. Jim was a superintendent at Wintergreen Resort and
has done a super job in this market.
2006
continued this busy period in Herod’s history. The Richmond facility moved a few
miles to a former tobacco facility on Ingram Avenue. We are very excited about
this move which involved almost tripling our warehouse space. This 125,000
square foot warehouse complex is one of the largest in the industry and makes a
wonderful distribution point for our “hub and spoke” wholesale distribution
business model.
Our
graphical expansion in 2006 was continued with the hiring of Mike Huey in
Maryland. We are hopeful that Mike’s commitment to this market with our support
will provide much growth in the future.
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Our Sales Team - 2006 |
2006
brought many more changes. Most of these were necessitated by growth. The
leadership team was formed. Steve Slominski was promoted to Sales Manager. Tom
Forrester was promoted to General Manager and Jon Gibson was hired as our
Operations Manager. These three coupled with Ned and our financial manager
Elaine Hoffman compose a very capable leadership team that should provide Herod
Seeds with continued growth in the future.
What
is Herod Seeds about? Our people and filling the needs of an industry. Herod
Seeds has “filled needs” by having 100,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space in
Richmond and by opening facilities in Manassas, Tidewater and Lynchburg. Herod
Seeds has invested in specialty trucks and equipment, allowing Herod Seeds to be
the industry leader when it comes to quality, service, and price. We would like
to thank our customers and our employees for allowing us to grow, coupled with
“filling your needs.” But what Herod Seeds is really about is our people. We
have been fortunate to have drawn the very finest in the industry. Everyone
shares the same passion for serving this green industry and we have a lot of fun
doing it! We all feel very fortunate to be able to work with the people
associated with the turf industry. The values and work ethic of the people in
the green industry are second to none and have afforded us many wonderful
friends across the state. We have been blessed and look forward to continuing
these relationships.
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