Family Business Council

Spotlight is a column that features a different FBC member or sponsor each month. This month, we caught up with C.J. Fiore, President of the Charles J. Fiore Company, Inc.

C.J. FIORE

FBC Forum: Lambeta

Year you joined FBC: 2006

FBC: What year was Charles J. Fiore Company founded and can you
tell us a little bit of the history behind the company?

C.J. : The original nursery was founded in 1924 by Charles Fiore Sr. on a two acre site in Highwood, Illinois and developed into a 1000 acre growing operation in central Lake County, Illinois.  The Charles J. Fiore Company, Inc. was established in 1986 following the sale of the Charles Fiore Nurseries Inc.

After the sale of the original nursery, C. J. and Mark Fiore, the third generation of the Fiore Family Nursery group, started a nursery and landscape distribution center in Prairie View, Illinois.  The new company continued to serve the same client base by providing customers with the same premium plant materials and the same personal and professional service they had grown accustomed to.

FBC: Can you tell me a little bit more about your company and customers?

C.J. : We are a nursery and landscape distribution business that supplies the Chicagoland and Midwest markets with the largest selection of above-ground, ready-to-install premium plant materials. We stock over 1,000 plant varieties, including many unique and unusual selections.  We serve our customers from two nursery center locations; one in Prairie View and a second on Chicago’s west side.

Our customer base consists primarily of landscape architects and contractors, municipalities and park districts, arboreta, universities and golf courses and private residential gardens. Our plants can be found throughout the City of Chicago and its suburbs in such special places as Millennium Park, the Shedd Aquarium, O’Hare Airport, Northwestern and Loyola Universities, Navy Pier, Museum of Contemporary Art and the Chicago Botanic Garden.

The greatest asset in our company is our team of experienced and dedicated professionals - horticulturists, certified arborists, and industry veterans.

FBC: How did you learn about the FBC and what motivated you to join?

C.J. : I learned about the FBC from my friend and fellow FBC member, Joe Krusinski.  When Joe explained what the FBC was about, the service and support it provided to its members, I immediately realized that this was the organization I had been looking for.  My brother, Mark, and I are equal partners in our business and we each have children actively involved in the business too. Consequently, we faced issues relating to succession and estate planning, and management transition.  I felt the FBC could assist us in addressing and solving all of these family business challenges.

FBC: How has your life changed professionally since joining the FBC?

C.J.: The level of trust, respect and collegiality I have developed with the members of the Lambeta Forum has allowed me to openly share with them the obstacles and challenges I face in the pursuit of my personal and professional goals.

It is comforting to belong to a group whom you know is there to support you… to offer advice, encouragement and even a pat on the back.  However, it is even more important to belong to a group who will not hesitate to look you in the eye and tell you when you are “dead wrong.”  Relationships like this are invaluable. 
 

FBC: What advice would you give to someone considering joining the FBC?

C.J. : Join NOW…why wait? You have everything to gain and nothing to lose. If a person is even remotely considering joining the FBC it would indicate to me that they have needs and challenges that they have not been able to fulfill or to solve on their own and that they are looking for answers elsewhere.

When I joined I certainly had many unfulfilled business needs to be addressed.  Now, after three years, I am happy to report that even though I have not reached all of my goals or fulfilled all my needs, my vision is clear. The lines of communication are wide open between the principals in our business and we are all pulling in the same direction towards a common goal.

FBC: What has been your most rewarding experience since you joined the FBC? 

C.J. : When I decided to join the FBC, I invited my daughter, Lisa, and my nephew, David, join with me. I felt that in order to successfully identify, address and solve the family business issues our company faced and prepare for the transition of the Fiore Family Nursery business to the fourth generation, I needed the full cooperation and commitment of all the principals that were going to make it happen.  It is very rewarding to see the level of commitment and involvement they have put forth in each of their respective forums.

We are all very pleased with our progress to date and are excited that, by working together, we will be successful in reaching our family goals.

FBC: What do you do in your free time?

C.J. : I enjoy playing golf with friends and family, spending time with my wife Susan and our three grandchildren, and dining out with friends.