Andrew Miller ’14 leverages his PLU MBA to help Tulip Town adapt during COVID-19

A graduate of PLU’s MBA program, Miller is CEO of Spinach Bus Ventures, a group of five longtime friends that bought Tulip Town last June, anticipating a return on their investment once the tourists arrived in the spring. Sales of bulbs, bouquets, and other merchandise during the festival could account for as much as 95 percent of the farm’s annual revenue.

But that was before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) struck, and Gov. Jay Inslee issued a stay-at-home order in March in an effort to slow the spread. The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival was canceled, and Tulip Town’s new owners suddenly faced the possibility of going out of business in their first year.

“We’d been tracking COVID-19 since January, thinking that it might be a disruption,” Miller recalled. “We knew we were going to have to flip the switch and do some things differently. So, in about 72 hours, we completely rewrote our business plan for 2020.”

Miller drew heavily on lessons he had learned while enrolled in PLU’s MBA program. He also solicited advice from PLU business school dean Mark Mulder, whose marketing class had worked with the Economic Development Association of Skagit County to study value-added agriculture.

“I use a lot of that research every day up here, and there are other farms that do, as well,” Miller said.

“We just really rolled up our sleeves and realized we’re not going to hit projections; but if we can hit costs, we get to do this again next year.”

Deprived of their main revenue source, Tulip Town staff sold bulbs and organic flour from a farm stand in their parking lot. They also developed a shipping program, allowing them to sell to remote customers for the first time.

Less orthodox was a new program called “What’s at Stake” that allowed customers to honor loved ones by placing memory markers in the tulip fields. These are displayed on the company web site and were a much bigger hit than anticipated.

“We thought there would be about 300 people that would like to do that, and it ended up being like 2,200 people,” Miller said.

Then there was Tulip Town’s Colors of Courage campaign, through which tulip lovers could honor some of those most affected by the pandemic.

“As a commercial grower we were able to move flowers into areas that were otherwise shut down,” Miller said. “We could get into nursing homes and hospitals, and to first responders. So we started selling bouquets of flowers online that can then be donated.”

And while social distancing has kept large crowds away from Tulip Town, tulip lovers can still tour the 7-acre farm thanks to a new virtual app.

“If you’re flying over the field and you want to look down, you just point your phone down,” Miller explains. “You can spin it around and see what it looks like behind you. It’s a fully immersive experience.”

“Without all of these adjustments, we wouldn’t have Tulip Town next year,” Miller said. “The most important lesson I took away from this was that you absolutely have to lead with your values. When you lead with your values, and you figure out what’s most important and can create community and connection around that. It helps every step of the way, especially in stressful times.”