Our Story
About Waimea Nurseries
Waimea Group comprises of several horticultural companies including Waimea Nurseries Ltd (tree production), Waimea Variety Management (intellectual property management) and Waimea Plant Laboratories (tissue culture plant production). Waimea Nurseries is a leading supplier of trees to New Zealand’s commercial growers of a range of crops, including apples, stonefruit, kiwifruit, berries and hops. The nursery is also a leading supplier of fruit, nut, berry and ornamental trees for the consumer market in New Zealand. These products are distributed through garden retail stores nationwide
Waimea Nurseries has been a supplier of fruit trees to orchardists since 1971, when the company was established by Doug and Georgi Simpson. Doug, his father and brothers had all operated nurseries and orchards including Golden Bay Nurseries, Simpson Bros, CH Simpson Nurseries and Stafford Lane Estate. The nursery is owned and managed by Doug & Georgi’s son Michael and Angela Donaldson. The tradition is continuing into the fourth generation with their children now involved in the business, with eldest son Bruno Simpson recently becoming CEO. The nursery headquarters are in Waimea West, twenty minutes from Nelson City. The nursery covers over 200 hectares on the fertile Waimea Plains of Nelson with both field and container nursery production sites. During the peak seasons, the nursery employs about 200 staff.
Waimea Nurseries has built a reputation of being New Zealand’s leading fruit tree nursery based on quality, trust and innovation. Growing excellent quality trees is a focus across the whole nursery, using industry best-practice propagation methods along with more innovative solutions. Waimea Variety Management plays an importation function for Waimea Group, by managing new variety importation and intellectual property protection (with varieties being propagated by Waimea Nurseries). WVM also manages NZ-owned varieties abroad, through the network of nurseries in INN and other partners.
Waimea Plant Laboratories (formerly Plant Propagation Laboratory) was acquired by Waimea Group in 2020, as part of the diversification of the companies for it’s existing business supply ornamental plants to the garden industry, as well as to provide tissue culture plants to Waimea Nurseries – in particular, G41 apple rootstock and blueberries.
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