By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
HALE‘IWA — Susan Matsushima, a former elementary school teacher, is breaking new ground for local farmers.
| Susan Matsushima
 Position: President of Alluvion Inc.
Education: Member of Roosevelt High School’s last English-standard graduating class in 1960; earned elementary education degree and teaching certificate from University of Hawai‘i-Manoa.
Background: Eldest of Hazel Tanaka’s three children. Matsushima’s late father, Walter Tanaka, was an electrical contractor who founded Progressive Electric Co., now under the management of her twin brothers, Steven and Stanley. Another brother, Gary, is a teacher who was an outstanding Hawai‘i senior league baseball catcher and successful high school coach. She is married to Paul Matsushima, manager of information systems at Wahiawa General Hospital. The couple have three children — Jodi Kusumoto, 30, and twin sons, Chad and Colin, who will be 29 on Feb. 17. Chad is shipping manager for Alluvion and Colin works in Seattle. She taught music and language arts for five years in Seattle and also taught in Hawai‘i at Kunia and Kipapa elementary schools. She is a member of the state Board of Agriculture; consultant for the Biosystems Technology Program; incoming chairwoman of the Western Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Committee.
Interesting Fact: Matsushima was a singer and dancer for a University of Hawai‘i group called Hawaiian Aires which performed 60 shows in 60 days on a USO tour to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines in 1965. The group was directed by Dr. Norman Rian.
Anecdote: In the days following Hurricane Iniki, Alluvion received an order for 72 potted flowering plants from a Safeway store on Kaua‘i. "I kept thinking, who in the world would be thinking of buying plants when everything else is so devastated?" Matsushima said. "Within three days, we heard they sold everything. I think it’s because flowering plants creates hope. That’s why people send flowers to someone in the hospital." |
The 58-year-old president of Alluvion Inc. is to diversified agriculture in Hawai‘i what June Jones is to college football here.
"She’s a model for what farmers should be doing," Nalo Farms president Dean Okimoto said. "If everybody looked at Susan and the new trends in agriculture she’s trying to teach here, they’d go a long way.
"The sad thing is they don’t realize how much she’s worth. To get farmers to change their thinking about growing the same things their fathers and grandfathers grew can be frustrating."
Matsushima’s willingness to work and be creative has allowed her to build a unique multimillion-dollar diversified agriculture business in less than 10 years.
From its 20-acre base of operation at the old Meadow Gold dairy site in Kawailoa — about four miles north of Hale‘iwa — Matsushima’s company is doing business in plant sales, plant rentals, gift baskets and wedding florals.
"You cannot look at her as 20 acres because her business acts like a cooperative," Okimoto said. "What she’s tried to integrate is really diversified.
"She puts her own plants in the gift baskets with a can of mac nuts and Kona coffee. Her focus is on everything local. There’s nobody here doing her type of business that’s as large as hers."
The diversity allows Alluvion to weather slow periods in plant sales or plant rentals.
"I’d characterize her as innovative and forward-looking," said Ken Kamiya, a papaya farmer and assistant director for farms and grounds at Brigham Young University-Hawai‘i. "She does things that others only think about."
In plant sales, for example, Alluvion supplies retailers with more than 10 percent of all potted plants sold in the state.
With access to more than 300,000 pots and 500 varieties of plants, the company can keep up with demand year around because of partnerships with 80 growers.
"Our production is much greater than other farms because of our collaboration with other growers," Matsushima said.
School benefits
Waipahu High School is among the growers benefitting from a partnership with Alluvion.
"They have greenhouses, and we provide them with pots, peat moss and small plantlets," Matsushima said. "They plant them, and when they’re grown, we buy them back.
"Waipahu earns $10,000 a year and uses the money to buy computers."
Alluvion’s gift basket business, meanwhile, has been boosted by partnerships with Hawaiian Host, Foodland supermarkets and Hilo Hattie. The company also markets baskets under its own label.
"She always seems to be one step ahead of the competition," said Alluvion sales manager Blanche Kort, who started working for Matsushima 18 years ago at Amfac Garden-Hawaii. "When you’re a teacher, you’re always looking to find ways to address different needs. I think that’s why she’s so innovative."
Matsushima’s timing has been near perfect over the past 22 years.
Matsushima was teaching part-time at Kipapa Elementary School in 1979 when she took a job with Amfac Garden-Hawaii despite not knowing anything about sales or plants.
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Distinctive logo
Alluvion is derived from the Latin word alluvium, defined by Webster’s as "soil, sand, gravel or similar detrital material deposited by running water."
The company logo features the letter "a" that ends in a wave on a dark square block. The "a" stands for Alluvion, the wave represents water and the block is the island created by water depositing materials.
In Japanese, shima means island.
Pine trees were placed on the left side of the logo because the Japanese word for pine is matsu. Matsushima is the last name of the company’s president. |
"In teaching we’re selling ideas, and in business we’re selling a commodity," Matsushima said. "So I thought I could do it."
She was president and general manager of Amfac Garden-Hawaii and had expanded the nursery’s stock from seven varieties of plants to more than 500 by 1990.
"Working for Amfac taught me corporate agriculture is a business," she added. "We had to do business plans and production plans."
A chance meeting that same year opened the door for Matsushima to become a partner in a Ka‘a‘awa nursery, which was purchased by a hotel magnate from Taiwan.
Matsushima’s daughter, Jodi, was working a summer job at the University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture. The daughter referred a real estate agent, representing the investor who had questions about plants, to her mother.
Matsushima took the agent and her client to view Island nurseries. The man found what he wanted and invited Matsushima to be his partner in Aloha Pacific Farms.
In 1995, Matsushima bought the nursery from her partner and renamed it Alluvion. She was also looking for a better site.
"We wanted to move because the wind was blowing salt from the ocean to the nursery," she said. "Salt kills plants."
She moved from Ka‘a‘awa to Kawailoa in January 1996, and her business has flourished there.
"We’ve created an ag park which is the reason we’ve been able to develop quickly," she said.
Matsushima sublets 10 acres to four tenants, one of whom has an aquaculture business, and buys plants grown by two of them.
"Susan came out here, took something that looked like a wreck and made it an appealing drawing card for others to take a chance despite the traveling distance to town," said Kamehameha Schools senior land manager Kapu C. Smith, who recruited Matsushima to be the "anchor tenant" at the 6,00-acre Kawailoa Plantation site.
"What she’s done has affected the whole community here," Smith added.
Fund-raisers hugely popular
Matsushima’s 12-hour work day starts at 6 a.m. and usually extends for several more hours at home in Mililani. Her daily schedule is tight, largely because she’s a consultant for several national groups and a state Board of Agriculture member.
"That’s just Susan being Susan," Kamiya said. "She’s so committed to ag and the future of ag, whether it’s crops or nursery."
One of her innovative ideas to get the public interested in agriculture has become one of the best fund-raising deals on O‘ahu.
Groups can earn 20 cents per gallon for potting plants.
"It allows us to do a lot of production, and groups who come for five hours can earn $500 to $700 or more," Matsushima said. "There’s no selling or collecting money or delivering products."
The bad news is the Alluvion’s fund-raiser is booked through 2001.
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