b"PULLING OUT THE 2021 CRYSTAL BALLMike Lizotte shares what might be in store in 2021 for the flower industry.Alex MartinIF YOU ASKanyone in the flower seed sector, 2020 wasSeed World (SW): Mike, tell me a little bit what's onneedless to sayan interesting year. When you factor inyour mind this morning.COVID-19 and working from home, its already difficult. Add inMike Lizotte (ML): Two things on my mind, that continue to a boom of new demand and new home gardeners, and youvebe on my mind. Number one is continuing to have a safe work made an already interesting year more interesting.environment for our employees. That allows us to keep up with Now, the question on the mind of the industry is easy. Whatsthis massive surge we keep seeing in the gardening sector. Then the crystal ball saying about 2021? Its hard to know that, espe- secondly, will I have enough seed as we look into the spring of cially as the world enters another wave of COVID-19 infections.2021 to fulfill this continued demand that we see in our industry However, Mike Lizotte, co-owner and managing partner ofwith the pandemic? American Meadows, was willing to pull out a crystal ball andIt certainly has presented this really unique opportunity, with discuss with Seed World all that might be in store for the flowera massive influx of new customers, new gardeners, which is cer-seed sector.tainly exciting. But also the challenges of trying to keep up with the demand at the same time, keeping a safe work environment for your employees. So, those two things have in continue to be front and center for us. SW: In general, how did this big garden seed need boom affect American Meadows?ML: Well, for us, we are very, very fortunate in regard to how the pandemic has impacted our industry of gardening in general. Most of us in the industry, smaller companies like American Meadows, but bigger companies, like Johnny's and Burpees, have all experienced record sales levels throughout this pan-demic. But that said, it does come with its challenges. When I think back to the spring, we were very fortunate that we were deemed essential so we can keep operating. We did not have to shut down at all during the our whole spring season. There were companies in our industry that were just overwhelmed where they literally in the peak of the season had to stop taking orders. We were fortunate at American Meadows where we didn't get there, but at the peak of the surge for uswhich was around that mid-May timeframewe ended up getting behind by two to three weeks, from the time you ordered before the time we could fulfill. Obviously, as a customer, that's not a great experience. Then again, just being able to navigate on a day-by-day basis, trying to monitor the pandemic, making sure that we had a safe work environment, combining those two things was very, very challenging. We also, once the pandemic really came to fruition, had to all begin working remotely. Throw that in the mix of having to all of a sudden have 50, 60, 70 people working from home and trying 10/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2021"