SPROUTING SUCCESS: On its 50th anniversary, family-owned Metrolina Greenhouses rides growing interest in plants and gardening.

• Author: Mildenberg, David
• Position: NC TREND: Agribusiness

In 1972, Tom and Vickie VanWingerden looked around the South to find a good location to start an indoor plant-growing business. They leased a 20,000-square-foot property in Huntersville, a Mecklenburg County town of fewer than 1,000 residents at the time.

Fifty years later, the family's Metrolina Greenhouses has become a $300 million-plus business that supplies more than 1,400 retail outlets in 19 states. As many as 1,200 people work for the company, which has enjoyed strong gains in the last two-and-a-half years as many homeowners spend more to beautify their properties amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The family saw a niche for supplying large quantities of plants at affordable prices, mainly through big retailers. Selling through Salisbury-based Food Lion paved Metrolina's initial success; then Kmart became its biggest customer. Sales to Lowe's, The Home Depot and Walmart now account for many of the 250 to 300 trucks that come in and out of the business every day.

"We had to convince the retailers that the business didn't end on Mother's Day," says Art VanWingerden, who is co-CEO with his brother Abe, sons of the founders. "It's a year-round business now."

While it...