Athens plant store Cofer’s celebrates 100 years of family business
4 min read
Stuart Cofer encounters frequent affirmations that encourage him he went into the ideal line of operate way back when.
And as his loved ones company – Cofer’s Residence & Garden Showplace – celebrates its 100th anniversary in Athens, Cofer mirrored on the issues that adjust and the factors that keep the very same.
“You search all-around the Athens spot and you see your crops in somebody’s garden and I know they’re my vegetation simply because we promote so many uncommon and distinctive plants I know they came from us,” reported Cofer, 62, who started operating for his father at the age of 10. “When you see individuals vegetation 25 or 30 many years later on, you get a good experience being aware of you served beautify the Athens region and the issues you offer go to make the ecosystem a lovely location.”
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Founded in the slide of 1922 by Cofer’s grandfather H.L. Cofer on Lumpkin Street (just down from the Georgia Theatre), the business has transitioned from a downtown seed and feed store to 1 of the area’s garden and landscape leaders.
Now found on Mitchell Bridge Street, Cofer’s also held down two Wide Avenue addresses (exactly where Zombie Donuts and Cloud 9 Smoke and Vape Organization now reside), had a retail store on Atlanta Freeway, and for a few yrs in the 1950s and 1960s had an outpost in downtown Gainesville.
Cofer’s been a household enterprise in each individual feeling of the phrase. Stuart Cofer is the 3rd generation to operate the business enterprise (his father, Hal L. Cofer, and uncle, Donald Cofer, succeeded the founder) and as soon as his son Stephen graduates from the University of Ga, he’ll hold the familial chain strong.
“My son signifies the fourth generation of Cofers, and significantly less than 4{73375d9cc0eb62eadf703eace8c5332f876cb0fdecf5a1aaee3be06b81bdcf82} of family businesses make it that much,” he explained. “So it’s a pretty distinctive deal.”
Now in his 43rd year in the loved ones business enterprise, Stuart Cofer reported he started working for his father for 25 cents an hour, “making boxes, cleansing up, serving to stock cabinets, using stuff to autos, watering crops.” He left Athens for about 5 many years, working in Los Angeles and Atlanta, but arrived residence for fantastic in 1988. He explained his father and uncle ended up responsible for transitioning the enterprise from the seed-and-feed yrs.
“They made a whole lot of adjustments in the company,” he said, pointing out that at one particular issue there was a Cofer’s downtown and a Cofer’s on Atlanta Highway. “They marketed pots and pans and we even experienced a pet section at just one time, experienced a lawnmower maintenance shop within the retail outlet. They changed the retail store as Athens altered.
“When they started off, Athens was nonetheless generally a farming community. As the University grew and Athens got far more urbanized, the keep changed with it. My grandfather would not identify the retail store if he walked in right here these days and I credit history my father and my uncle Donald for the modifications.”
Stuart Cofer stated his uncle ran the Atlanta Freeway store and his father ran the downtown shop right up until it closed in 1987.
“When we closed downtown in 1987 we ended up a whole-fledged lawn and back garden heart,” he stated. “As considerably as I know, we’re the oldest loved ones-run backyard garden retailer in the point out of Ga.”
When asked his feelings on exciting alterations in the enterprise he’s been in for many years, Stuart Cofer stated smaller gardens are infinitely far more well-known than more substantial beds.
“Gardens have gotten lesser and smaller sized over the many years,” he claimed, incorporating that the store nonetheless experienced common clients that traveled from Hartwell, Greensboro, Elberton and Gwinnett County. “We utilised to provide beans and peas and corn in pound deals and now we provide in quarter-pound or a lot less mainly because persons have smaller sized gardens.”
Stuart Cofer claimed has no speedy designs for retirement and additional he nonetheless enjoys the perform.
“I’ll most likely operate in this article until I’m 70,” he mentioned. “I get pleasure from the job and we’ve bought a excellent buyer foundation and good workforce. So it’s nonetheless enjoyment to get the job done. As my son gets much more involved and skilled in the small business conclude I’ll start off easing back again.
“I will not do like my father, who was from the era born in the Melancholy decades and he was a workaholic, virtually 6 days a 7 days most of his lifestyle. I have whole religion in the staff members we have here and my son that they can run this organization just as good, if not greater, than me. Then I’ll stage back and enable all those guys get pleasure from the celebration.”
Cofer’s House & Back garden Showplace will host an open home March 25-27 and on April 19 will present a seminar showcasing landscaping tips, prosperous tomato cultivation and hydrangeas and other plants. For far more info on functions, visit www.cofers.com.
