FitzGerald Nurseries:Growing from family farm to global enterprise
FITZGERALD NURSERIES has developed a range of plants suitable for year-round use in small garden spaces, planters and containers. The business has grown from a family farm into Ireland’s leading young plant nursery based at two locations in Kilkenny and a micro-propagation laboratory in Co Wexford.
FitzGerald supplies young plants to growers in 18 countries, and carries out contract micro-propagation production and new variety development. The company also has a number of its own varieties sold as micro-propagated plants, plugs and liners. It has its own private trial grounds and carries out production and garden trials on-site.
Its international success is the result of a three-year project, which has seen FitzGerald Nurseries develop a range of plant products to sell overseas, and move the sales focus of the business away from the Irish market.
While many Irish nurseries propagate their popular plant varieties in tens and hundreds, FitzGerald Nurseries has introduced high-tech processes and organisation to the horticulture sector. The company brought together science, intellectual-property creation and registration and scaled production to help it to tackle the international marketplace.
In this way, managing director Pat FitzGerald has converted what was once simply a farm into a business with 20 employees on site and another 15 at the laboratory in Enniscorthy.
It now exports to the US, Australia and Japan, and its plants have won numerous awards, last year picking up the IPM Essen show award in Germany, the world’s largest commercial horticultural event.
The company took this path because the market for ornamental and food plants in Ireland is limited and focused on a very narrow base. In order for the company to grow to its full potential, it was necessary to take a wider view of the market opportunities and develop unique products that would give the company a world market.
This resulted in the decision to establish a unique portfolio of plants and develop and breed varieties that are protectable under patent on an international basis.
The company also developed world-class and cost-effective production systems to take these products to a world market and at a significant scale.
The company has established several strands of protected production exclusive to the company.
These include plants bred by Pat FitzGerald and licensed exclusively to the company; plants bred by other breeders worldwide with unique production systems developed by the company and production rights exclusive to the company for world markets; the biotech business, with 14 people working on bringing these plants to scale; and a joint venture established for outsourcing lower-cost up-scaled production to supply scaled-up volume to world markets.
FitzGerald Nurseries intends to grow the company from its current turnover of €1.75 million to €5 million over the next three years.
To this end, it has moved one employee to Germany full-time to grow the business on the continent.