The family started a landscaping business in 1954, and by the early 1970's focus shifted to the production of nursery stock. The early years were split around 70% container, 20% field, and 10% greenhouse crops. Now serving as one of the largest wholesale nurseries in Ohio and ranks in the top forty in the United States. The nursery currently consists of approximately 700 acres of field production, 150 acres container production, and 5 acres of greenhouse. They produce a wide variety of plant material allowing them to focus on various markets.
The customer base stretches from Chicago to East coast and Baltimore to Kentucky. They serve retail stores like Frank's and they sell other larger plant material wholesale. There line includes 1,400 varieties of perennials and woody ornamentals, offering 3 sizes per item. The average production cycle is 6 weeks to a year for perennials and 18 months to a year for hard woods. They only sell 1 _" caliper or larger shade trees providing mainly landscape size material. They are leading a revolution into custom informational tags with planting instructions or how to stake trees. This also provides a spot for garden center name and a bar code.
The real reason for success is a lot of work done by a lot of people. There are 7 sales representatives on the road, but they are all based out of the nursery in Avon, Ohio. They all know what is going on and check the material at the dock to bridge communication gaps between the seller and the buyer. Willoway Nurseries takes pride in growing and shipping nice plants. The nursery has different divisions with division leaders that know the best plant and blocks to pull from. From the wagons to the dock the load receives a white tag with dock number and customer name. Someone checks the order, then applies the custom tags ensuring variety and quantity. They use there own fleet of trucks connecting outlying farms. Carrying a broad product line allows the nursery to restock a garden center, and they are conscious towards the weekend sales effort. An interesting note is that their loading dock is also a greenhouse structure that was used for forcing floral stock. They also continue to use different temperature zones forcing trees into flower for trade shows.
The tour of the propagation area was a highlight of the visit. Seeing where it all starts, and around 70% of their stock is represented. Half of the 5 acre greenhouse is devoted to floral stock and the remaining to propagation. The facility has many features such as, rolling benches that help cut down on aisles, bench heat for increase root production, is equipped with mist on timers, and spaghetti tubes for basket production. The royalties are paid on cultivars when sold as a end product. They are currently involved in tracking degree days on cutting success, as they do little propagation by seeds. Their grafting is subcontracted out to only two people.
The in house maintenance and staff includes 6 mechanics. They do their own vehicle maintenance, fabricate wagons, and built a custom trimming conveyor belt. There are over 150 pieces of rolling equipment, and it helps keep up service records. They build barns, hoop houses, benching, and work on tiling in the pot in pot fields.
Willoway has a water recycling program which contains all runoff from container nursery. Some very large collection ponds store water until it is out back in the system. Salt levels are monitored on a daily basis. Their only solution is dilution. The water source is limited with only a five gallon a minute well, so they in turn use reservoirs and collected surface water.
The labor force consists of a total of 350 persons. 160-170 full time and local labor, with the remaining 200 general laborers from Mexico. They fully utilize the governments H2A program providing legal documents, but there are lots of strings attached. They are only allowed to stay for 9 months and are paid state minimum wage of $7.53. They are provided with transportation to and from work and must provided housing.
Logistics becomes a problem on a farm this big, as there can be over a mile from potting barn to resting point for a plant. There is evidence that they address efficiency a lot. Being only 30 minutes away from down town Cleveland is catching the company up in Urban Sprawl. Their pot in pot system is one way they are trying to efficiently use land which allows for shorter distances between plots and other operations.