| Subject: Christmas at Reach Haven |
Author:
Dick McWilliams
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Date Posted: 14:56:34 12/22/05 Thu
Here's an article from Ellsworth, the closest town with a regular newspaper. It's about the Christmas Wreath industry. We're on Little Deer Isle, the upper end of the Eggemoggin Reach. Haven is down east and across the Reach from us.
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The record-setting rainfall that kept much of Maine damp this year helped produce a banner crop of fir boughs.
Jim Philp, a forestry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, said the brush used in wreathing is in “real good shape” this year because of the abundance of rain during the growing season.
He said that tippers encountered one minor problem: much of Maine stayed warm until late in the tipping season.
Normally, Philp said, people who gather balsam fir tips don’t harvest until after a frost, but in late October, many areas remained frost-free.
Despite a slow start to the tipping season, wreath makers generally are pleased with weather conditions.
“The weather has been tolerable,” said Doug Kell, owner of Kelco Industries and Sunrise County Evergreens. “It’s been good for wreath makers.”
Kelco Industries produces supplies used in Christmas tree and wreath businesses, providing everything from wire rings and decorations to machines used in planting and harvesting trees and making and packaging wreaths.
Sunshine County Evergreens, the mail-order arm of Kelco, ships about 60,000 wreaths, trees and Christmas centerpieces a year.
Kell said the sale of supplies and equipment represents about 75 percent of his annual business and serves some 7,000 regular customers nationwide. Mail-order sales account for 25 percent, and combined, Kelco does more than $5 million in sales annually.
Kell, too, said that the abundance of moisture this year helped greens grow well. He acknowledged that a warm October delayed much of the tipping activity in Hancock and Washington counties, but he said he resolved that issue several years ago.
“We bought land in northern Maine to raise our own greens,” he said. “It’s colder there.”
So, how is business this year?
“This year, business has been brisk — average or a little better,” Kell said.
Dick McWilliams, owner of Harbor Farm in Little Deer Isle, said that his mail-order wreath business is “running neck-and-neck with last year.”
McWilliams said he purchases balsam fir wreaths from off-site wreath makers. The wreaths are decorated at Harbor Farm and mailed nationwide and beyond. He markets about 10,000 wreaths annually.
McWilliams and Kell have noticed changes in Maine’s longstanding wreath industry.
“I think the whole wreath business took a hit on 9/11 and hasn’t fully recovered,” McWilliams said. “It’s pegged to the general economy.”
He said that many stock traders and others who bought large orders of Maine wreaths were killed during the terrorist attacks in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
“We haven’t made it up,” he said of the lost sales. “ It’s crazy — what happens in downtown Manhattan affects Little Deer Isle.”
McWilliams said that while nature continues to provide an abundance of wreath-making greens in Maine, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find wreath makers.
“The number of people who used to live on a seasonal economy is becoming fewer and fewer,” he said. “The best wreath makers are gone, and their kids and grandkids are not taking over.”
He said the demand for Maine wreaths is increasing but the supply is going down, which leads to “crunches” at various times.
Kell has noted similar changes in the wreath-making workforce.
“There have been a lot of changes in the industry,” he said. “There used to be hundreds of thousands of wreaths made in Maine. Now it’s tens of thousands.”
Kell said Canada has had an influence on the decline in number of wreaths made in Maine. He said that many wreaths decorated in Maine and shipped from here actually are made in Canada.
“More and more wreaths are coming in from Canada,” McWilliams said. “Canada has more available acreage to tip and more people working the land.”
Still, the wreathing industry adds several million dollars to the Maine economy each year.
“The Maine mail-order wreath business is a huge boost to the economy,” said McWilliams. “It redistributes money from all over the United States and other countries to Little Deer Isle. It’s a wonderful injection of funds to Deer Isle, Maine.”
McWilliams said much of the revenue from the making and selling of wreaths goes to Mainers “utilizing a well-understood craft,” adding that the industry often provides income to people in the low-income bracket at a good time as they shop for Christmas gifts and pay home-heating bills.
Kell and Philp said there is no exact count of the number of wreaths made and marketed in Maine, partly because the industry is so fragmented, including numerous small mail order and roadside businesses, as well as well-known industry giants such as L.L. Bean.
Kell said the annual revenue from Maine wreaths probably totals between $50 million and $100 million.
“Years ago, you would buy a wreath for 30 cents and sell it for 60 cents,” Kell said. “Now, you buy one for $4 to $6 and sell it for $25 or more, retail or mail order. Though the quantity has dropped, the dollar value has increased.”
Hope you all enjoyed the article. Come see us here along the reach. We have the finest fir Christmas Wreaths money can buy.
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