My guest is Alex Van Wingerden is the owner and CEO of Westland Floral, Gallup & Stribling Orchids and Alexander Ranch. Westland Floral traces its roots to the 17th century and the Cornelis Van Wingerden family of the Westland region of the Netherlands. For fifteen generations, the knowledge and passion for cultivating flowers, fruits, and vegetables under glasshouses have passed from one generation to the next. The story of Westland Floral evolves into the 21st century with the journey of four Van Wingerden brothers to America in 1967. Lured by the promise of prosperity and the American dream, the “Dutch Brothers” came in search of farmland where they could cultivate a better life. The brothers brought with them their families, the spirit of entrepreneurship, horticultural knowledge, and a passion for farming. Please enjoy my conversation with Alex Van Wingerden.
My guest is Alex Van Wingerden is the owner and CEO of Westland Floral, Gallup & Stribling Orchids and Alexander Ranch.
Westland Floral traces its roots to the 17th century and the Cornelis Van Wingerden family of the Westland region of the Netherlands. For fifteen generations, the knowledge and passion for cultivating flowers, fruits, and vegetables under glasshouses have passed from one generation to the next.
The story of Westland Floral evolves into the 21st century with the journey of four Van Wingerden brothers to America in 1967. Lured by the promise of prosperity and the American dream, the “Dutch Brothers” came in search of farmland where they could cultivate a better life. The brothers brought with them their families, the spirit of entrepreneurship, horticultural knowledge, and a passion for farming.
Westland Floral website - http://westlandfloral.com/, https://gallup-stribling.com/westlandfloral/ and https://alexanderranchinc.com/contact/sister-companies/
This episode is sponsored by UnitedAg, one of the largest association health plans to offer healthcare to the agriculture industry of California and Arizona.
Kirti Mutatkar, President and CEO of UnitedAg. Reach me kmutatkar@unitedag.org, www.linkedin.com/in/kirtimutatkar
UnitedAg's website - www.unitedag.org
The episode is also sponsored by
Brent Eastman Insurance Services Inc. - https://brenteastman.com/
Blue Shield of California - https://www.blueshieldca.com/
Elite Medical - https://www.elitecorpmed.com/
Gallagher - https://www.ajg.com/
SAIN Medical - https://sainmedical.com/
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:00:01] So, uh, Alex, I'm super excited to be here today. Really, really enjoyed the tour and the session that we had at lunch this, uh, afternoon. So [00:00:10] excited to be at your in your office today.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:00:12] Well, thank you for coming, Kirti. It's been a nice day for to hear your speech earlier, as well as to kind of show you what we do here in Carpinteria [00:00:20] with Westland Floral, Gallup, Stribling, Alexander Ranch and Series Farm.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:00:24] So I am I was here in Santa Barbara today talking to the Santa Barbara growers. I was actually [00:00:30] a little bit nervous about that because usually when I give my speeches, I was telling Bridget it's a little bit different. So I'm like, Oh, I don't know how it was received, but I'm such [00:00:40] a story and connect connections and emotions and nostalgia. That's that's who I am. And so this is the reason this is special to talk to you. Alex Because [00:00:50] I actually used to do CFO forums a couple of years ago. I used to come in this region and, uh, Cayce used to come in to my sessions, and I kind of [00:01:00] build a bond with him. I remember asking him, You should get more involved with United Egg at that point, right? So it feels after COVID and after what we've been through, it's very [00:01:10] cool to connect with you and just listening to you right now when you're given the tour and getting to know you, This is this is going to be an amazing, uh, I think I found a friend already. [00:01:20]
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:01:20] Yeah, no, we did. We definitely seem to have some common interest as far as our passion for agriculture, for sure.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:01:26] Right. So what made you, uh, how did you get interested in agriculture?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:01:30] You [00:01:30] know, I was born and raised. You know, we lived on the farm base. I went outside and played tree houses within the avocado trees as well. As, you [00:01:40] know, I would grow my own little flowers in little areas between the trees. I would take extra plants that were left over from the greenhouse, try to make them flower, [00:01:50] not realizing that moms needed photo period ism to get tall. So mine are always short. So we learned that a bit later in life. But you know, I was just living in the [00:02:00] house on the farm and just, you know, interacting with the employees and having that that was my space was out and around the farm. And so we just started started from there. [00:02:10] Yes.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:02:20] We [00:02:20] bash so passionate from your younger days. This is truly your passion.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:02:24] It is. It is like, you know, I would try to sell what little flowers employees came around or visitors and, [00:02:30] you know, they were supporting me now. Looking back, you realize it was not necessarily that they needed them, but they wanted to, I think, try to [00:02:40] show that they liked what I was doing. So it was a very nice feeling at the time.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:02:45] That's that must be an amazing childhood.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:02:47] Yes, it was. You know, and I have a I like working [00:02:50] with equipment and everything. So as soon as I was able to drive, I would start driving, you know, tractors, trucks and everything, probably at age ten. So that kind of kept me kept me pretty pretty much [00:03:00] That's where I spent my time and, you know, tinkering with stuff like that and then, you know, go to high school. You know, I did play some sports, basketball and stuff. So it kind of took a little bit [00:03:10] of a break. And then college up at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where I studied horticulture and egg business and so forth, and then kind of came back that basically the two days after I graduated [00:03:20] and we started expanding the Gerber program here at Western Floral from zero acres to ten acres. And at that point that we started that in year 2000, [00:03:30] we were fully expanded to ten acres. In 2005. And unfortunately, with the market pressures that we're facing and, [00:03:40] you know, difficulty of competing with Colombian basically Colombian imports a little bit from Mexico, but foreign competition in 2017, we had to actually start, [00:03:50] you know, reducing our Gerber footprint. And we moved into a cannabis crop that was more lucrative at the time. So we definitely diversified into that. We continue [00:04:00] to do some cannabis, we do cut flowers that we make farm made bouquets going into the supermarkets locally. And then we can we have our orchid program at Gallup and Stribling, which [00:04:10] is one of our more exciting points at this at this point in history, just because of there's less people growing orchids and we we are to be the biggest grower in the United States. And so we're going [00:04:20] to definitely put our emphasis more on orchids, which are unique, very popular item to our consumers at this time. And then we also diversified into our agricultural crops [00:04:30] of basically produce with his lettuce, herbs and microgreens, and that's under the umbrella of Alexander Ranch.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:04:36] So you have three companies right now, right? So that must [00:04:40] keep you really busy. So you have orchids. You are also growing produce and you have the cut flowers and the cannabis.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:04:46] Yes. So that's four companies, four companies Series Farm is the cannabis company.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:04:49] So when [00:04:50] you, uh, when you're thinking, uh, the orchids, that this was very interesting to me during COVID, they shot up like big time. Is there something, was that, uh, [00:05:00] California or even us, right? Did we, were we always the buyers of Orchid or is that something a new thing that you see a trend?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:05:07] No, I think COVID actually reduced the [00:05:10] amount purchased. It did. We had some serious struggles. You know, it happened right around March 15th, which was a couple of weeks before Easter. So Easter, [00:05:20] which is a very our second biggest orchid holiday, was very, very low volume holiday. We lost a lot of product. So and [00:05:30] then Mother's Day came back. Okay, Because people, you know, again, everyone has mothers. Covid had people gotten used to it for a couple of months and, you know, the supermarkets [00:05:40] were willing to buy again because we when COVID hit, our orders were basically told we're cancel all the POS, we had product in the cooler that, you know, [00:05:50] 34, 45, 45 to 40000 of product that they basically just called and said we're not going to take.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:05:55] So what did you do with that?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:05:57] We ended up donating some of it and [00:06:00] we were able to sell a little bit locally and some of it had to be discarded.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:06:03] Oh, that's yeah, that's unfortunate.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:06:06] 2020 was a tough year, tough year way.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:06:08] Through, I would think the other way [00:06:10] round because when you really think flowers and the impact what we've seen from the health care industry and what it can have, especially with the anxiety and the stress and what we saw happened [00:06:20] during COVID, you would think people would give more flowers or have the flowering industry would be more.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:06:26] You know, and I think as things rebounded, that happened, [00:06:30] but that didn't happen till that May for Mother's Day. Mother's Day is.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:06:33] What opened up. Okay. So May 2020. Okay.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:06:36] Yeah. And but beforehand, retailers were just too [00:06:40] scared. They didn't know. I mean, people were in lockdown essentially. They didn't know whether to go who was going to the stores. They were limited in people because of people giving COVID. So they were [00:06:50] more concerned about putting food on the shelves. And Floral took a back seat to that at that time.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:06:54] So one of the things I also from not just flowers or any of the agricultural, uh, produce that we have, [00:07:00] it's a very long term game, right? Because you are, you're thinking Mother's Day and or Christmas or let's say right now. Right. You planting in June. Yes, [00:07:10] for December. So you have to really think through this because like anybody else, it's not you're not bringing it to the market in a month or. You write, it's a long term.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:07:19] It [00:07:20] is. I mean, we basically by February need to know what Christmas is going to look like. So you basically you finish your ten month sales in December, you got January off by February, [00:07:30] you've got to have the plan again.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:07:31] Right? Right.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:07:32] And then so.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:07:33] Does that how does that play into your financial? That must be really hard to as well.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:07:37] You're speculating. You know, we've it's [00:07:40] we try to ask people to kind of put their orders in right away once they know what they've done. Most people want to just, you know, hey, Christmas is done and they forget about it for a bit. So it's hard for us. [00:07:50] So we really do grow on speculation. Yeah. And then over the next couple of months is when we kind of see the orders start coming in and, you know, if you had a good [00:08:00] year, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll schedule a little bit extra and then we just kind of keep going. And then if we have a difficult year, we might go back. But for now, the last three years have been very good.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:08:08] So when you think [00:08:10] of you've grown up in this industry, right? So when you look back, do you ever so what? What are the lessons learned? Why? Why did you what [00:08:20] made you stay here? I know it's a very hard job and it's very just talking through from an expense standpoint, from the future and what's happening. It's a stressful, [00:08:30] but it looks like it's a very, uh. It's adding something to you. What is that?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:08:36] You know, for me, it is a passion and it's a hobby. It's. It's [00:08:40] your life. I mean, you're not I don't have a lot of outside of my family and my kids. It's my job. And, you know, when you're growing plants, it's just like raising a family in the sense [00:08:50] that these plants are alive. They need care all the time. You're responsible to provide water, the right temperature and whatever those plants need to be successful. And [00:09:00] obviously, when it it's your livelihood, you cannot have failures. So you're doing everything you can. So it takes a lot of time outside of your day. But it's just, I think the the [00:09:10] challenge, but also the the pride you take in starting something from seed plant plug to growing that crop to its finish state. You know, when you make [00:09:20] a sale, it's it's a rewarding feeling. I mean, occasionally I do go to the farmer's market and, you know, my kids have done it a few times and that's kind of brought me back into the farmer's market versus having [00:09:30] employees do it. But it's been a it's a nice, rewarding feeling to say that we grown this. People ask questions like how they figure out who you are, and then they start asking questions like, you know, how do you do this? How has [00:09:40] this crop grown and so forth. But for me, it's more so is is, you know, just working the ground, planning something and watching it succeed. [00:09:50] Yeah.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:09:50] And it's actually feels I'm a little envious of that because that is you're right. It's like nurturing and you seeing the product from the beginning to the [00:10:00] end and then the pride that you get from when people appreciate it.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:10:03] Right, Right. Well, as a farmer, I mean, you're the grower, you're the doctor, you are the protector. You're everything [00:10:10] to that plant. If Mother Nature's going to give you a storm that's going to be aggressive, you have to figure out a way to protect the plant. If it's sick, you know, you find ways through different remedies [00:10:20] to try to help that plant get passed a virus or, you know, rots funguses and stuff like that. And then, you know, with pests and everything else, you know, we try to do what we can to protect the [00:10:30] plant. Our strategy starts more so with like IPM, which is integrated pest management, where we're using a combination of if we can use our natural enemies in combination with lower risk [00:10:40] chemicals to repel pests. That's how where we start, a lot of things have gone more to organic chemistries to so but all those all those challenges [00:10:50] are how we how we get that plant from start to finish the grade.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:10:56] And definitely then we is Yeah.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:10:58] No it is it [00:11:00] is you know.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:11:00] I can see why you're passionate about it.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:11:02] Yeah for sure. And I think one thing I haven't touched on is the people that we work with, the agriculture, you know, it's a very special group of employees. They [00:11:10] all have that passion and, you know, they will work long hours, they enjoy what they do. And we you know, we're as a team, we deal with the challenges [00:11:20] that Mother Nature gives us. But it's a very respectful, close knit group. And everyone there really does enjoy the long term employees, enjoy what they do. [00:11:30] And, you know, so when you say what keeps you going through the pressures of challenges of the business, part of agriculture, part of it is the people that are with you. Yeah. [00:11:40] And you don't want you want to make sure that you, you know, make sure that they have a job to to go to and that they are happy. And you have a team because with no team, there's no success. You know, you [00:11:50] could have individual successes, but when you're talking a large business, you have to have the people behind you.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:11:54] Like I said, you're the 11th person I've talked to you. This is exactly every podcast [00:12:00] we have. This is how this is come up, the people behind it, right? And it feels really special even from us at United Egg. Right? The reason I decided to stay [00:12:10] in this industry is I see that because we serve this industry right. We are part of this industry. So I see that and that people centric ness and the connect. Action. And what, though? [00:12:20] You get out of that fulfillment. It's beyond a monetary benefit that you would say.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:12:24] Right? Right. It is. It is. Absolutely. And you know, there's people that you know, it's you know, obviously [00:12:30] we pay them for everything they do, but you could see that at some point they probably would do it if they weren't getting paid. And it's not what it's about, but that's the passion that's there.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:12:38] So do you see your [00:12:40] next generation as passionate about this as you are?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:12:44] I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. You know, you know, I do have three children, their triplets, [00:12:50] all 15 and a half right now. They have lately expressed a little bit of interest in what we're doing. And they like, you know, participating, [00:13:00] which has been nice for me to see. But they have all their other passions, too. So we'll see where it goes. And but they're going to have to really want to be an egg in order to make [00:13:10] it successful. But I'm optimistic that a couple of them might want to stay and join family.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:13:15] Business and do some of them. One of one or two of them come into and do what you used to do as a kid. [00:13:20] No, they're not as much.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:13:22] So, you know, we're a little more careful these days to.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:13:25] That's true. The equipment and all.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:13:27] Yes.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:13:28] More protective parents.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:13:29] That's [00:13:30] very true. You know, my wife is it's very important to the safety of the kids. So things that I got away with is not something that they would do now. And we're in a society of more controls [00:13:40] and more safety than 20, 30 years ago.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:13:43] That's that's true. That's across the board, not just here, but everywhere else. I think it's a little bit to the detriment of the kids. But [00:13:50] it is it is the world we live in today.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:13:52] They are safer. But, you know, you're missing out on things, you know, driving in the back of the pickup truck down the dirt road and stuff like that, it just doesn't happen anymore.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:13:59] So [00:14:00] so one of the things I'm trying to do through this this is the podcast is, um, I don't know if there's a perception out there I feel there is about agriculture and [00:14:10] what is that that you and I, for the role you play and the role I play, what can we do to get those messages out? It's one of the things I'm [00:14:20] trying to do through this podcast. What are the stories of agriculture of somebody maybe who doesn't understand our industry? What would you say to them?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:14:28] Well, it's just [00:14:30] such a large demographic of people. We as farmers don't necessarily know what people know or what their perception of farming is. So I, as [00:14:40] a farmer, have a perception of maybe what your general public person would think. And I would I my feeling is they don't really understand and the challenges [00:14:50] or the process that that it takes to to produce a plant from start to finish and what what people go through to get to that [00:15:00] to that finished product. And, you know, there's a lot of steps that take place and the importance of the, you know, again, importance of our staff and our people that [00:15:10] to make it happen. You know, I think at certain points there's a perception that people just say, hey, the products in the store, I get to buy it and how how convenient. But they don't understand, [00:15:20] you know, that there's roots on a plant, that it got started by seed. And, you know, to some extent you see certain programs where they're trying to educate the younger generation [00:15:30] or anybody, you know, you see local gardens sprouting up in towns. You see certain groups that are educating people on the risks [00:15:40] and issues or concerns of diabetes. And, you know, there's groups that are teaching people with how to eat healthy and they're trying to show them how plants are produced. [00:15:50] So you do have a group of people that are definitely trying to bring that to the forefront. But in general, you know, when people come and visit, that's where you see they're like, oh, [00:16:00] it's an amazing it's you know, there's a lot of questions, but if they don't visit the farm, you know, there's they definitely don't see exactly where everything comes from.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:16:07] Talking to a lot of people in the industry, it's [00:16:10] really hard to do, uh, be in this industry in California today. Yes. What's your experience like?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:16:16] No, I mean, we are challenged. The business climate [00:16:20] has been very uninviting. You know, we you know, we are a high labor industry and we deal with high costs, high taxes, [00:16:30] insurance costs. And you have even I mean, you know, the amount of money that has to be allocated towards the health care and different insurances [00:16:40] is is significant. And, you know, even utilities as far as and then we're heading towards a potential drought here in California. So water prices [00:16:50] as well as water management fees, etc., are going to be going up. Right now, everything is high regulatory or costs? Regulatory. [00:17:00]
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:17:02] The cost of regulation. Yeah.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:17:04] Yes. You know, compliance is the word I'm looking for is is an additional cost that we didn't have 15 years [00:17:10] ago, just dealing with a different entities, the paperwork, you know, that's what takes a little bit of the love out of farming is dealing with all of the [00:17:20] the different aspects of business and dealing with things that sometimes don't always make sense.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:17:26] That's that's true. And it's so unfortunate. And sometimes you [00:17:30] saddened by it that this is, uh, we burdened by so much of compliance issues and most of it doesn't seem to really have an impact, right? So it doesn't really [00:17:40] mean anything. You're just doing it for the sake of doing it. All this paperwork sometimes.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:17:43] That's correct. You know, there's regulatory agencies and they have what they want to get across. And in the end, farmers are very resourceful people [00:17:50] and very non wasteful people. So, you know, we we use as little fertilizer as possible. We work through in our case, we recycle a lot of our our fertilizer, water because [00:18:00] for for one thing, it's more compliant with the water regulations we deal with. But on the other side it also saves money and to be able to capture fertilizer and reuse it. So, you [00:18:10] know, the farmer did it. More on the sustainability. That's true. Basically got our to get us on a sustainability purpose whereas [00:18:20] it's in our case served it to help us ease some of the regulation that we had to deal with. But there's still a lot of oversight and paperwork that does it does create a cost that we have to manage. [00:18:30]
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:18:30] What would somebody like around Bridget's generation, right. Who's thinking of agriculture as a career? What [00:18:40] do we think? How how do we get them excited about agriculture, in your opinion?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:18:46] If anyone's young and interested, it's patience, because [00:18:50] it's sometimes when you jump in immediately you may see a few things that you don't like, like the dirtiness or sometimes the smells. You know, [00:19:00] people use organic matter that, you know, it doesn't smell the most friendly to people's noses and stuff. So, you know, if you have an [00:19:10] interest in agriculture, it's it's patience and observe the time. Take the time to see enough before you make a decision if it's for you or not.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:19:19] That's [00:19:20] a.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:19:20] Good point, but I think.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:19:21] It's a fulfilling one. Once you're really if you really interested in it, it's a very fulfilling career to have.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:19:26] Yes, But I do believe that most people who get [00:19:30] into Agg don't usually leave it so.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:19:32] Yeah, yeah. Because I think it becomes, uh, that's, that's what happened to me, right? I accidentally fell into this industry and [00:19:40] I did not want to get out of this industry, that there is a very different fulfillment out of this.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:19:44] Right. And it's a very diverse industry as well. I mean, you've got the farmer at the bottom [00:19:50] that starts the crop, but then you have the scientists that do the research, you know, new seeds, new breeding varieties like that. You've [00:20:00] got the people who work on the crop protection side of things where they're coming up with chemistries to help, you know, protect these crops. And, you know, otherwise you also, [00:20:10] you know, natural enemies, entomologists that came up a little bit at lunch today. I'm not I think whoever's at my table heard about that. So, you know, it's diverse in many ways. You know, the universities, [00:20:20] you know, the different professors that, you know, if you go through the university system dealing with entomology, crop protection, water resources, different [00:20:30] soil, soil patterns as far as or soil types, you know, those are things that you learn over time, like, you know, a clay soils not is going to be as easy as [00:20:40] growing into more of a sandy loam, stuff like that. So it takes time and time and energy And again, I think it's more the people that stay in this [00:20:50] industry. It's because the people, the passion of the people and the teamwork that comes along with it.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:20:54] Yeah. And like you said, it could be agricultural, so diverse. If you're interested in [00:21:00] science, you can be part of it. If you're interested in engineering, you can be part of it, right? It it's a there's so many of those skills that you need in agriculture that it's it's a [00:21:10] diverse industry. So is there anything else, any stories or anything that you feel you would like our listeners to know?
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:21:19] You know, at this point, I [00:21:20] think I've kind of shared.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:21:21] The.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:21:21] Majority of what I can. You know, I think the biggest thing is what I would say is buy local, whether it's here in Santa Barbara [00:21:30] County, local or California grown, you know, and, you know, it's it supports the local industry. You know, we we we ship products all over the United States and stuff [00:21:40] like that. But, you know, for for consumers to kind of look at where their products are coming from and try to support your domestic American growers. And [00:21:50] what we do here in the United States of America.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:21:53] Is that, uh, to support the community or is there a any other added benefit to that, you think.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:21:59] And what.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:21:59] Aspects from [00:22:00] buying local? Yep. [00:22:40] Which is very true. And the reason I ask you this question, because as in [00:22:50] the industry, very community based industry, right. Giving back to the community, their farming operations help colleges and hospitals and our health [00:23:00] and wellness centers or different. It's a very community based thing. So I think that to be part of a community is more important than anything else. [00:23:10] When you think of that and look at California grown.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:23:13] Yeah, no, for sure. For sure.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:23:14] Yeah.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:23:14] Yeah. You know I thank you for the time, you know, to kind of get to know us and myself [00:23:20] and you know what we do here at the different companies while some floral Gallup and Stribling Alexander ranch and series farm you know so you know we hope to be here a long time [00:23:30] and hopefully next generation steps up But for the most part, yeah, we're here. We are we you know we're online on Gallup and Stripling dot com as well and Western Floral. So, [00:23:40] you know we have our local store here as well if anybody's interested. You know, we do do tours every so often. We try to voice that through email blasts [00:23:50] or through our website. So anyone who's interested, you know, we're here to share what we do.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:23:56] Alex This has been really, really good because every time I'm taking I've [00:24:00] taken quite a few of the stores, but every time you learn something new, right when we're going through the farm and the, uh, your being from a CFO day, like [00:24:10] looking at your income statement and all the line items that you see on an expanse and the cost of growing what you sell, it's just astounding. It's, it's [00:24:20] so to support that, to support any of that would be an awesome thing. But more than anything else, I think as we connect and we get to know each other at a deeper level, it's always great. [00:24:30] And I say it's like the My One Starfish at a Time story, right? If I connect and make one friend, that's success to me. So even if you don't have any speed of people [00:24:40] listening to this, but you and I connected you and I got to know each other, I think that was an awesome experience. So thank you for that.
Alex Van Wingerden : [00:24:46] No, I appreciate that. You know, and it is about the people we meet as we go [00:24:50] through life. And, you know, for my at least in my experience, most people I've met, you know, have always been good relationships. So and, you know, as time goes around, you kind of go back to those older [00:25:00] those people you've met or you you realize that that person can help you and you rekindle that relationship. So it's important the people you meet and the people you work with are critical. Thank you. So thank you for taking the [00:25:10] time to share your podcast and come visit us today.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:25:13] Thank you. Thanks, Alex.