The Kuček Family: People of Međimurje Love Well-Maintained Gardens, Making It Easier for Stella floris to Survive the Pandemic

The nursery Stella floris from Čakovec cultivates a hundred species of ornamental plants, shrubs, trees, roses, perennials, and flowers of various sizes and shapes. With its solitary and unique specimens, large plants, low-growing, columnar, globular, evergreen, and deciduous suitable for different spaces and purposes, Stella floris has managed to sustain itself over 21 years of existence despite challenges in the industry and the general business environment.

The company and nursery were founded by Zvonimir Kuček with his sons Saša and Mladen, and although their sales at the nursery increase year by year, the majority of the plants, says Saša, go through services, i.e., environmental landscaping projects, yards, parks, and tree rows, which is actually their core activity. Landscaping and maintenance services, from planning and design to implementation, thus constitute the largest part of their business revenue. Saša emphasizes that they have survived thanks to constant optimization in all segments of the business, careful cost management, insisting on comparative advantages, a professional approach, and quality of work.

Seasonal Guarantee

They are expedient, quickly responding to calls and offering a complete service, and clients at the nursery can see the plants and choose what they want.

– We then integrate the selected into the solution along with our creations, suggestions, and proposals using years of experience, expertise, and knowledge. We present the proposed solution with a computer simulation and cost estimate. Along with quality work, we also provide a guarantee for everything we plant. We truly strive to offer an optimal product, i.e., the best quality for the lowest possible price, as we are very aware that our future depends on the satisfaction of our customers and service users. The cost of work, which includes site surveying, planning, creating a computer simulation of the proposal, and implementation, ranges from 20 percent to 40 percent of the value of the plant material, and our clients know that this is a very profitable investment due to the expertise and quality of our work. Additionally, we provide a one vegetative season guarantee on everything we plant, i.e., we replace any dried plants within that period – describes Saša.

From Refugee Status to Nursery

The beginnings of Stella floris date back to the years before 1990 when Zvonimir Kuček, as a master of agronomy, led a company for landscaping and environmental maintenance in Banja Luka, where they lived until the beginning of the Homeland War. Saša’s brother Mladen grew roses and gladioli, worked with plants in the Netherlands and Slovenia, while Saša graduated from the Faculty of Economics and played handball professionally. After years of being refugees and temporary stays in the United States, Germany, and the Czech Republic, they returned, joined forces, and began landscaping yards in Međimurje, said Saša.

– Since it was necessary to have a warehouse for plant material and equipment, we bought 5,000 square meters in the south of Čakovec and established a nursery. My father is the chief designer and supervisor, my brother runs the nursery, and I am responsible for economic matters. Our responsibilities and activities overlap, as my brother also leads the work on the field, and I work on project development and computer simulations. We collaborate excellently, making strategic decisions together and by agreement. In our nursery, the most sought-after plants are those that form ‘living fences’ and ‘green screens’ such as cherry laurels, photinia, cypress, thuja, while individually, the most sought-after are highly decorative species like Japanese maples and Japanese willows or standard roses – explains Saša.

The Environment is Preserved Through Landscaping

They constantly strive to enrich their offer with new species by listening to the desires and needs of customers, and they also monitor the supply in the European market, so Saša claims they are leading in the region in terms of assortment. They do not keep exotic species from tropical regions and Mediterranean herbs that do not thrive in the continental climate in the nursery.

– Plants are an indispensable part of our environment and are very important to humans. They breathe what we exhale, exhale what we breathe, live, grow, and die, seeking attention and care, which they fully deserve because by decorating a certain space, they make our living environment not only more beautiful but also more pleasant, thus of higher quality. Moreover, we live in a time when preserving the human environment is most relevant, and one of the first steps in preserving our environment is its landscaping, in which plants play a significant role – believes Saša.

Their clients usually express their thoughts, requirements, and desires regarding landscaping, and they strive to respect and integrate them into the proposed solution while adhering to professional rules, he emphasized. Besides certain aesthetic and functional rules and requirements, he stresses that it is a matter of taste whether the client will be satisfied with the appearance of the yard, so they always take care of the clients’ wishes and meet their requests.

‘Swimming’ in the Corona Crisis

The corona crisis also caused a significant decrease in sales and revenue for Stella floris in March and April, but the current situation is much better. Namely, Saša notes that the uniqueness of their work, fieldwork, outdoors, under the open sky, allowed them to still function and carry out their work, with all necessary precautions and protection measures. Last year, they had about 1.6 million kuna in revenue, which Saša assesses as a significant increase compared to the previous year, primarily due to several investments made by their clients using funds from European Union funds.

– We used the increase in revenue to invest in the production of some types of plants, we improved the irrigation system in the nursery, and part was invested in the satisfaction of our employees by increasing net salaries. In the first five months of this year, we generated about 500,000 kuna, which is satisfactory considering the corona crisis. It has stimulated greater interest through the web, but the wealth of colors and shapes in our nursery still attracts the most plant lovers. The impact of the pandemic on the economy certainly spills over to all economic entities, including us. Fortunately, we exist and operate in a region where people have a strong habit, tradition, and culture of maintaining a beautiful environment and well-kept yards. We have already survived one major economic crisis, so I believe we will continue to have work – hopes Saša.

Careful Revenue Planning

Given that the business is seasonal and also depends on weather conditions, according to Saša, it is essential to carefully plan revenues and expenses almost daily, as business costs are high, and revenues cannot simply be increased, as the work is labor-intensive and there are biological limits. It has happened, he said, that they could not work at all in December, January, and February, and since the possibility of planting is almost completely reduced in June, July, and August, it is actually necessary to earn part of the income for the rest of the year when they mainly have maintenance, mowing, fertilization, and protection.

– Payments to the state are too high and overly burden the business. Taxes, surtaxes, and contributions on salaries are so high that they prevent wage increases for workers, which all has a multiplicative negative effect on the entire economy. And at Stella floris, besides the three of us, there are currently six other employees. Although it is not easy to find someone willing to work flexible hours, field and physical work, and the expected meticulousness in the job, we have been fortunate to find valuable and dedicated employees. Three of them have been with us almost from the very beginning – emphasized Saša, who is also a successful handball coach who has completed 25 consecutive handball seasons.