FEATURE: VAN SCHAIK’S BIO GRO
Thirty not out for Phil Nagle By Stephen Van Schaik Anniversaries are times of celebration and we’d like to take the opportunity to celebrate a wonderful man that has given so much to us and our industry over the last 30 years. It is of course, Phil Nagle. We’d like to take you on a journey of Phil’s thirty years in the industry and share Phil’s achievements. For those of you lucky enough to have worked with Phil or even have just spent some time with him, you will understand there is only one Phil Nagle.
The Early Years Phil started working as a casual at The Greenery in Heidelberg in 1990. In 1991 he was offered full-time work in their garden supply yard. It wasn’t long before he picked up on an issue with local soil they were selling. Customers would buy plants from the nursery and then come over to get some garden soil to plant them in. They would go home plant them and some would die. It was the soils. The Greenery were already dealing with Bio Gro for some of the landscape barks and mulches they sold. Phil touched base with Bio Gro and discussed the need for a better-quality product, after several trials Bio Gro started producing Landscaper Mix solely for the Greenery. It was such a great success they still sell it today 30 years later. In 1995 Phil was promoted to The Greenery senior management team. He recalls one of the highlight’s as being the Garden Show, the fore runner to MIFGS. It started out at a horse racetrack,
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Phil Nagle
before moving on to Fitzroy Gardens and then Carlton Gardens. The Greenery were always involved. Barry and Daryl Teese the owners were extremely keen on promoting gardening and the industry. The highlight year was when The Greenery built both a Victorian and Spanish garden, complete with full house fronts.
The Bio Gro years
From the very beginning Phil showed that he had an incredible amount of energy and enthusiasm to help drive not only our business but also the industry as a whole. Whether at Van Schaik’s Bio Gro, on industry boards or at industry events.
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– Stephen Van Schaik, Managing Director and owner of Van Schaik’s Bio Gro.
In 1999 Phil was offered a job by the Van Schaik family, they had just purchased a potting mix company called Australian Potting Mix (APM). They asked Phil to run the company as it was their first Victorian site. APM came with two employees, was renamed Bio Gro and based on the Canterbury Road site. The first thing Phil did was get the site up to industry standards and this involved getting it accredited as a growing media supply. Accreditation was achieved in November 1999. The office was a 40-foot shipping container, no liner, no air conditioner, just a heater, a very basic start for Bio Gro. From there we bought out Propine another potting media manufactured in Colchester Road. Colin and Garth Campbell retired, and Canterbury Road was relocated to this site. These were exciting years and Phil worked very closely with Kevin Handreck who was our principal consultant. Phil, under Kevin’s guidance, took over the technical side of Bio Gro’s operations, writing formulations, diagnosing issue with plants and growing media. He was very much a mentor for Phil. u GROUNDSWELL JULY 2020
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