Athena Brazil to Handle URC Business From GroLink

Chris Beytes

Athena Brazil, an international supplier of annuals and tropical perennial unrooted cuttings, will begin to sell its products directly to North American brokers starting September 1. Up until now, GroLink Plant Company, Inc. of Oxnard, California, has been the distributor of the URCs produced by Athena.

GroLink’s Paul Gaydos clarified the press release Athena sent out about the deal. According to Paul, GroLink was selling to brokers as well as selling direct to growers.

“With this change, GroLink is out of the loop; they will not sell the product, handle orders from brokers, or have a say in the day-to-day business operations of Athena,” he explained. “Athena Brazil will work in partnership with all of the major brokerage companies in the U.S., and will be able to offer a much more streamlined ordering process, faster response time to last-minute orders, a more accurate and live availability and, most importantly, direct contact with the supplier.”



Paul, who has handled broker and technical support for GroLink since 1998, will begin working for Athena September 1 from his office in Florida. He added that Athena will only sell to brokers; they won’t be doing any direct-to-grower sales. For its part, GroLink will continue to sell garden and cut mums (they’ve dropped pots), ipomoea and dianthus cuttings to brokers and growers.

Athena is owned by Brazilian Lucilene Anatriello and a group of California cut flower growers. For more information, email Paul directly at Paul@AthenaBrazil.com. GT