Lynch's Garden Center To Change Name By End Of 2017

Apr 18, 2017 6:01 PM

Ever since taking over the shop in early 2015, the new owners of Lynch’s Garden Center in Southampton Village have been planting the seed in their employees’ minds that they will be changing the business’s well-known name—and by the end of this year, customers will begin to notice the transition too. Margaret “Midge” Fowler, who runs the garden center with her two sons, Ricky and Andy, said in a recent interview that the business will slowly transition to being called Fowler’s Garden Center. She explained that when she purchased the shop from the Lynch family, who owned the business for 80 years, the name change was included in the agreement. The Fowlers would keep Lynch’s name for three years, before phasing it out and taking a new name.

“We wanted the name-brand recognition for a few years, but we did agree that after three years that would be it,” Ms. Fowler said. “Just little by little, we are changing it.”

Employees, who were all retained when the business changed hands, immediately started seeing the new name on their paychecks, Ms. Fowler pointed out. She also changed the incorporation documents early on and started billing vendors under the new name.

“Our employees know it, so now it’s time to let the world know it,” Ms. Fowler said.

This spring the Fowlers plan to start rolling out delivery trucks with the new logo on it, which will be green and feature a wheelbarrow. Once the busy season starts winding down—typically somewhere around Independence Day in July—the Fowlers will work on securing new village permits to change the sign. Ms. Fowler said she doesn’t expect that process to be completed until the end of the year.

The shift in ownership at the garden center went smoothly, said Ms. Fowler, noting that the business has been blooming with customers. Locals start buying plants as soon as there are a few consecutive warm days in the spring, she said. “As soon as weather breaks and feels good, we will be nuts until the Fourth of July.”

Though her business is changing its name, Ms. Fowler said she understands that to some people in the village it will always be referred to as Lynch’s.

“As long as customer service is where it needs to be, that’s all that matters,” she said. “There are some people who still don’t know it was sold.”

Lynch’s was started in the early 1900s by Terence Lynch as an estate management business and expanded to include a storefront on Nugent Street. In 1955, the business moved to its current location on North Sea Road, where it grew into the garden center it is today.