One of Tasmania’s iconic mail-order nurseries is quietly closing its gates this September reports Jennifer Stackhouse from Tasmania.
Nik Magnus of Woodbridge Fruit Trees Nursery at Cygnet has decided to wind up his business after completing the sale of bare rooted trees for this year. The announcement was made to existing customers in mid-June via email and has now become public.
I caught up with Nik as he was out on the road delivering orders to find out more about the business and his plans for the future. He admitted it has been a very hard decision to make to close as the nursery was a legacy from his father, Bob Magnus, who had run the business for more than 40 years. Nik took over the fruit tree growing side of the business 18 years ago.
When Bob retired, his business was divided between Nik and his brother and sister. Dan took over the perennial business now Woodbridge Nursery and Lisa took on the floristry business as Lisa Kingston Flowers.
Nik says there was no one trigger that decided him to close the business but some of the issues included very long hours in winter, the on-going difficulty in attracting good staff and a lack of commitment from a buyer to start a new small business. He says he did consider selling but didn’t want to part with his home and farm so anyone that purchased the business would need to continue the nursery on a new site.
“I am happy to teach someone if they want to get into growing fruit trees,” he adds. “Selling a business like this comes with a sense of obligation so for me it would be important to mentor a new owner for a year or so to ensure success and that has a certain amount of value.”
The heritage varieties have not been lost. Nik has established an orchard planting two trees of each variety that he grows.
“It is my way of honouring the gift given to me by my Dad, and those who collected and ensured the survival of the heritage fruit varieties I grow,” said Nik.
