INCREASED CAPITAL REDUCED

Allensmore Nurseries reigned supreme at AIPH International Grower of the Year 2023 at IPM Essen, winning gold for Sustainability. FCI caught up with the company’s business development manager Geoff Caesar to discuss the challenges and opportunities that come with running an ornamental horticultural business in the UK.

Allensmore Nurseries is a family-owned grower, supplier and trader of pot bedding and a range of perennials, shrubs, climbers and Italian specimen plants to supermarkets, DIY/Box stores, garden centre chains, and independent garden centres in the UK. With over 50 years of trading experience, the business operates on 140 acres of land. It has built a reputation for exceptional product and service quality across a broad product range supplied to a diverse customer base. The company is aligned with the four pillars of business growth (Branding. Innovating. Disruption. Success.) but with their own mission Environment, People, Community, and Customers. Sustainable production is at the heart of everything the business undertakes. Reducing the negative environmental impact and increasing the positive impact and support for the local community is fundamental to how they operate.

FloraCulture International: You won the Sustainability Award at the AIPH International Grower of the Year 2023; what does this mean for you personally and the Allensmore team?

Geoff Caesar: “Our product is green by its very nature, and we believe we owe it to ourselves, our staff, and our customers to produce our plants in the most sustainable way possible. Winning the sustainability award is recognition for all our team for their incredible effort to achieve this.”

What ignited the spark to enter the AIPH IGOTY Awards – and would you recommend others to go through the gruelling jury process?

“We were delighted to win the UK Horticultural Trades Associations award for finished plants, and it was suggested that we may like to apply for the AIPH IGOTY Award, which we have always regarded as the most prestigious award in the industry. Completing the application process does have its demands. Still, it is an opportunity to put into writing all the work the team achieves in growing, selling, and delivering our plants to our customers.”

What do you feel is the biggest strength of Allensmore?

“I keep mentioning the team, but it really is our people who are adaptable, enjoy striving for excellence, want to see the business continue to grow, and always keep customers in mind.”

I am keen to know more about the decision Allensmore made to improve its environmental performance. Why and when did it begin, and how easy was it to influence the staff, customers, suppliers, and contractors on this journey?

“As an industry, I think ornamental horticulture is relatively environmentally aware. We grow a green, living product that benefits the environment, so it comes naturally to aim to produce it sustainably. When the business began development of our Madley nursery in 2012, it made sense to look at sub-irrigation and water recycling and using electric vehicles for on-site transport. Our team embraced this approach, and introducing new ways of working became our way of working.”

Your Environmental Statement shows your mission is to 'provide high-quality plants which cause minimum negative effect on our environment'. Tell us about your journey to create your integrated Farm Management Policy - and what were the challenges in reducing all the harmful activities?

“Reducing our environmental impact is an ongoing process; we approach the challenge from both the perspective of we have this impact and what can we do to reduce it but also from the perspective of this technology exists and how can we make use of it. For example, we learnt about biofilters, a very low-cost and effective tool for cleaning the water used for washing out spray tanks. We have built one on one of our sites and are now introducing them on all our sites. We had not identified tank washings as a particular problem; we were spraying them over the crop, but this

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