This year Kitayama Brothers, a cut flower grower based in Watsonville, is celebrating its 73rd year in business.
Not long after World War II, brothers Tom and Ray Kitayama landed in San Francisco’s east bay and began working for Yoshimi Shibata and Dan Shinoda, two famous flower pioneers of the time. The Kitayamas decided to jump into the industry themselves, opening up a greenhouse in Union City with younger brothers Ted and Kee.
The business grew, expanding to secondary locations in Brighton, Colo. and Watsonville. By the late 1970s, Kitayama had become the largest greenhouse grower in the United States.
But the industry changed. Large amounts of offshore growers gradually began infiltrating the market, and a good portion of hyper-local and large U.S. growers alike began losing business.
Kitayama found themselves having to adjust, looking for ways to incentivize customers and stay afloat. In the early 2000s they scaled down to just their Watsonville location (KB Farms), and began focusing on different types of flowers. These days, they grow mostly gerbera daisies, lilies and snapdragons.
“We first pivoted from growing roses to carnations,” said Jasen Henderson, sales and marketing manager for Kitayama. “And now we’re focusing on harder-to-import grows, ones that are best when grown locally.”
Two weeks ago, Kitayama kicked off a social media-based photo series “Life at KB,” in which they share their history as well as a glimpse of day-to-day happenings at KB Farms.
Henderson, who has worked at the company for the past year and a half, saw it as a way to better connect with their customers and the larger Kitayama family, many of whom now live out of the area.
“We were trying to figure out, ‘What exactly is marketing, for a grower like us?’ We don’t often sell directly to consumers, we have a set list of customers,” he said. “But we still wanted to have a presence, a visibility. This series has been a way to stay engaged.”
Henderson, along with their new social media manager and other staff, have been digging through the company’s archives and staying up-to-date with daily farm happenings. Every week, they update “Life at KB” with new photos and write-ups.
“We want to be a little more active online, so we can continue to grow,” Henderson said.
That proclivity to adapt and move on is perhaps why Kitayama has survived so long.
Henderson said that at the start of the pandemic, they were uncertain if they should plant as normal, or scale back. The vice president at the time made the decision to take the risk.
“And it was the right call… because actually, the market went up,” Henderson said. “With people staying at home, they would buy flowers for themselves and their spaces… not just for special occasions.”
This has been great for the industry as a whole, Henderson said.
“For us, flowers are most productive in the summer time… not when they’re popular to buy, on Valentine’s Day or Christmas,” he said. “So this is definitely a positive trend.”
KB Farms’ biggest event of the year, the Gerbera Festival, was canceled last year due to Covid-19. It returned in June, reimagined as “Gerbera-N-Go,” where people could pre-order potted flowers and pick them up in a drive-thru.
The event raised money for the Santa Cruz State Parks and the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau, who Henderson said has been a great supporter during the pandemic.
KB Farms hopes they can hold their usual event, complete with food, vendors and presentations next year. Meanwhile, they will continue to move forward.
“We don’t know what anything will look like next year,” Henderson said. “Hopefully we’ll have at least the option to hold gatherings. No matter what, we’ll still be here growing flowers.”
Follow Kitayama Brothers on Facebook to view “Life at KB.”
