ONE of the north's largest garden nurseries has unveiled a new £1 million expansion.
As part of a major investment programme, supported by First Trust Bank, Dundonald Nurseries has increased the size of its garden centre and warehouse capacity as well as opened a new gift shop.
In addition the business, founded by the McCully family in 1963, has enhanced its wholesale nursery offering, following investment in industry-leading technology, including automated potting equipment.
Sustained growth at the Co Down nursery, which supplies Tesco, the Henderson Group and independent outlets and florists across Northern Ireland, has has also seen the workforce expand from three staff in 2013 to 60.
Dundonald Nurseries owner Malcolm McCully said the latest investment is part of ongoing growth plans at the business.
“This is just the latest stage in our investment programme and with the support of First Trust Bank, we have additional growth plans in place to renovate the basement of our restaurant into a function room to offer a new private space for hire," Mr McCully said
“Having started out with one small van, the wholesale nursery aspect of our business now requires four large lorries to service our wholesale customers across the country, reflecting the focus we have placed on a high-quality service and products.
"Over the past 55 years, the business has expanded steadily because we are continuously innovating to keep up with changing consumer requirements. We are proud of our growth and recently purchased additional land off-site to build a new-state-of the-art glasshouse complex, equipped with the latest growing technology for plants."
Catherine O’Keefe, business manager at First Trust Bank added;
“The ongoing expansion programme has led to almost 60 jobs being created in the last five years and it’s great to see a family business become such an inspiring success story. We wish the McCully family the best of luck for the future.”
In addition to the nursery the McCully family also run an award-winning 125-seat restaurant on site and due to the growing popularity of its gift shop, a 3,000 sq ft expansion was created to facilitate additional sections for children, ladies and gent’s clothing, crafts and homewares.
