When Leonard Levy began working in the floral industry, all of the flowers sold in North Jersey were grown locally, in greenhouses scattered around Bergen County. He saw the business change in the 1960s, as jets began delivering flowers from California, and again in the 1980s, with the growth of the floriculture industry in South America, and imports from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Now, Hillcrest Garden, the Paramus floral distribution company founded by Levy’s father, Eric, in 1936, is adapting to industry changes again as supermarkets are expanding their flower offerings and competing with traditional flower shops.
Supplying retail florists remains the primary focus of the business, but the company has been exploring new areas of distribution as flower-buying habits change. The company expanded to a 53,000-square-foot facility, with a greenhouse and an 8,000-square-foot cut-flower refrigerator on Century Road in Paramus in 1994.
Levy, 77, says he fell in love with the business of selling flowers in his first day on the job, and plans to keep working until he’s 99. To prepare for the future, he and his sons brought in a consultant to advise them on how to pave the way for the third generation of Levys to take over the company.
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