Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 3, 1 Malaki 1993 — Nō Ka ʻOi Plants -- a growth industry [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Nō Ka ʻOi Plants -- a growth industry

by Jeff Clark Frank Santos, an OHA loan recipient through the Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund, started his business in 1979. Its basis was that time-honored formula for success: find a need and fill it. He noticed the restaurant where he worked looked drab and cheerless, so he suggested livening up the plaee with plants. The idea worked, other restauranteurs caught on, and Santos was in a new business - plant rentals. "It was a new thing, nobody was doing it," Santos said. Dining room managers found plants were perfect for "creating the atmosphere they wanted for their restaurants. The restaurants looked so niee, we started pieking up more accounts." Soon he rented plants for offices and then hotels.

Plant renting had been popular on O'ahu for some time, but it was a new concept on Kaua'i. As development on the island grew, so did the business. "Now there are more plant rental companies on the island, but we've been here from the beginning," said Abby, Frank's wife and partner. Since then Santos has picked up many accounts, earned a landscaping contractor's license, and put in years of hard work. Today Santos operates Nō Ka 'Oi Plants in Hanapēpē on seven acres leased from the state. The business has 10 employees (it had 15 before 'Iniki hit), and hires Hawaiians through Alu Like. Nō Ka 'Oi expanded from rentals to landscaping to wholesale and retail sales, with a elientele of homeowners, yard workers, and landscape contractors. "Our dream was to have a retail nursery, because everyone asked from the start if we'd sell plants, so we knew we could do that," said Abby.

Surviving 'Iniki Like most people on Kaua'i, Frank and Abby Santos were hit hard by Hurricane 'Iniki. They lost several structures and the vast majority of their inventory. "This whole plaee was three feet under water, so all our plant material got salt burn - all the plants died after two or three weeks," Frank said. "This plaee was choked with plants. That was what was so depressing, looking at all the empty pots." "It was sad," Abby says. Santos was able to get Nō Ka 'Oi back on track by keeping focused: he passed on the bigmoney eleanup work that was available immediately after the storm so he could concentrate on rebuilding. Inventory is growing again, new plants are coming up, and business is returning. Nō Ka 'Oi lost all its interior accounts, but some big landscaping jobs are

filling the void. "Now it's starting to really piek up, everybody's insurance claims are getting worked out, so people are buying plants," Frank said.

Kōkua from OHA Nō Ka 'Oi received a $50,000 OHA loan in 1989, and used the money to invest in a hydromulcher, a maehine that in one step sprays seed, water, fertilizer, muleh and insecticide over an area to be landscaped. "Niee grass makes the whole job look better, and that made us more of a professional company," Frank said. The funds also went toward other equipment and provided much-needed working capital. OHA was there for Nō Ka 'Oi when traditional lending institutions were not. Abby said trying to get a bank loan "was real hard - impossible. They just didn't see it." The loan wasn't Nō Ka 'Oi's first assistance from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs - in 1980 OHA gave Santos a $500 grant to purchase a greenhouse. OHA's loan fund manager Ken Sato keeps in close contact with Nō Ka 'Oi. He calls them every month, and after 'Iniki hit he helped them secure a short-term loan from Bank of Hawai'i to tide them over while waiting for a Small Business Administration loan.

\laking it work As mueh help as OHA has been, and as visionary as Frank was in getting in on the ground floor of a potentially lucrative business, what really made things happen was sweat. "That first five or six years, we learned the hard way," Abby remembers. At what point did the Santoses feel they had "made it," that they were successful and it was safe to take a deep breath? "It hasn't eome yet," Abby says. "Equipment breaks down, employees get hurt, bidding on jobs ... there's always a lot of stress."

But the two agree that Frank's earning his contractor's license was "a real turning point." The license meant they could bid on big jobs, the customers could feel more secure, and that the eompany was insurable. Frank's advice to Hawaiians thinking of starting a business: "Go for it!" But he tempers his enthusiasm with a dose of realism. "It's hard - you have to be real dedicated. People think, 'Oh, you have your own business, you ean take off any time.' But you can't. When there's work to be done, you have to work." Likewise, Abby keeps a balanced vision: "Working for yourself - that has to be the best. But if you're going to start your own business, you have to be ready to work. Work, work, work, that's all it is."

Frank and Abby Santos. plant renters and OHA loan recipients. "People say, 'Eh, how could you work with your wife?' But we're a team," says Frank.