The nursery was founded in 1975 by Malcolm Barney who, along with his wife Jane and two daughters Julie and Sally, developed the nursery as a respected supplier of bedding plants and potted bulbs for retailers and garden centres through local wholesalers.
Malcolm sadly passed away in January 2010 while working on the nursery, doing what he loved. Jane then saw Bridge Farm Nursery as best placed to maintain and grow the business while maintaining Malcolm's principles.
So it was that Bridge Farm's David Ball took over as managing director of Neame Lea in late 2012 - a challenging time of rising costs, a consolidating market and an inefficient supply chain. David's vision was to establish the lowest cost of production in the UK, while streamlining the supply chain and developing sustainable routes to market. With considerable hard work and investment, including more than £10m for a new head office and state-of-the-art production site, this was achieved over the following years.
This has brought Neame Lea to the forefront of UK ornamental plant production while establishing key partnerships with its suppliers and customers, including the conclusion last August of a partnership with retail plant marketer Zyon UK, which relocated its office and packing facilities to Neame Lea's site on Horseshoe Road in Spalding, bringing the two together and creating what is thought to be the largest grower-packer operation in the UK.
Its appetite for expansion remains undimmed. Within the last month Neame Lea has also taken on nearby VP Nursery to meet its bedding plant growing needs.
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