GROWING JORNA'S NURSERIES

Jorna's nurseries know all about growth. A family owned business, it is the biggest and most progressive bedding plant supplier in the South Island. It has grown from a small nursery supplying the Christchurch market 12 years ago with a handful of employees, to a dedicated team of 30 with specialists in planting, growing, care and distribution of plants to customers throughout the South Island.

Jorna's is a real life example that commercial nous is more important than in depth expertise in an industry.  The business is family run - Vince, Pedro and Paul Wylaars and their wives Virginia, Karen and Pip. Of the six, only Pedro had some experience of nurseries (working after school and one year at Lincoln!).  The others all came from diverse backgrounds - sales and marketing, retail and the printing trade.

"It has been an advantage", said Vince who is Managing Director. "We purchased the business from Case Jorna who was well respected in the industry and we could see the potential for growth.   Having commercial experience rather than horticultural expertise, meant that we could apply commercial solutions to problems that limited growth. 

"For example, the difficulty of transporting plants meant our market was very parochial.  So we developed a new transportation system which involved using plastic rather then wooden rather than plastic trays and roll on, roll off trolleys to use with truck tailgate lifts.  Our plants are also grown in containers that suit stacking which minimises space in delivery containers. This meant we could expand our ability to supply beyond the Christchurch markets to Nelson, West Coast and Timaru then on to the complete south island.  Also by concentrating on specific types of plant, our growth rate climbed to between 20% and 30% per annum. We now ship our young plants in to the north island.  

"In fact, planning and dealing with growth has been critical for us.  Although we are now developing new facilities, until we could further expand, we had to introduce strategies in response to the company's inability to cope with the growing demand."

These included:

• Consolidating the range to ensure that the most profitable lines had the capacity to be grown.
• Dividing customers into three categories to ensure that the most loyal received the best service and were offered priority on short supply lines.
• Consolidating the customer base and creating a customer waiting list advising potential customers that the company was at its limit of its current capacity and could not meet any further customer needs. 
• Increasing the number of delivery trucks to four more recently 6 to maintain good costumer service
• Developing a new nursery computer software program to totally integrate the production from warehousing through dispatch and transportation using palm pilots with bar coding  capabilities to track product.

"The strategies we put in place were to ensure we were operating as efficiently and effectively as possible, and most importantly, we did not want to jeopardise the relationship we had with existing customers. Our name is synonymous with quality and good service and we don't want any future growth to change that.

"When you consider the shelf life of a plant is 2/3 weeks, forward planning is essential. There is a family joke about planning in the business. We say Pedro, who is responsible for the nursery team, plans for the next half hour.  Paul, the Production Manager plans for the next year.  I am responsible for the strategic direction of the firm and I plan for the next 5 years.  So we have all our bases covered!"

"Operating as a family business has been a strength for us.  We all have an equal partnership in the company and I believe a partnership arrangement is the way to go.  We share the problems and the rewards.  We are aware that some day, maybe one of the partners will want to exit.  So we make sure that we pay ourselves well, so that if we ever have to find a replacement, we can pay market rates for that expertise.

"The biggest difficulty is keeping family life separate from business - as most owner operators know, the business does become all consuming.

"Where we need expertise, we are happy to bring in outside help. We have a good relationship with Ross Erskine of Staples Rodway in Christchurch who has been very important to our business.  He helps with planning and also chairs our family 'council' meeting once a year.  The financial control within a family business such as ours needs to be transparent and Ross explains to the rest of the family the breakdown of the business' accounts and he also audits my performance.  That can be reassuring for family members who may see nothing of the company finances throughout the year."

The company's vision for the future is simple.  Says Vince "We are by far, the best bedding plant supplier in the South Island. Our next step is to be the most technologically advanced in the country"

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