Growers Greenhouse Supplies Inc.: Nourishing Innovation within its Field (Canadian Business Executive)
Summer 2010 - In a general sense, Coulter runs GGS Structures Inc., a greenhouse building designer for the horticultural and agricultural industries, and Niagrow Systems Ltd., which creates heating systems for greenhouses. Meanwhile, Harrison is still senior management and oversees JGS Limited, which specializes in greenhouses for research purposes at universities and laboratories, and he maintains the day-to-day operations of the overall company. However, GGS is not the type of place that gets hung up on status. “We don’t really use titles. We’re a family business and I’ve grown up through the business doing different jobs, so we all just kind of do what we need to do here,” Coulter explains. Niagrow and JGS were added to GGS during 2009.
“It was a bit of a challenge ... to add two companies in two months. But we picked companies with a strong management base and then we’ve backed that up to expand it more for future work. JGS Limited specializes in high-end research greenhouses for corporations and governments. They do real architectural stuff,” Coulter shares. “The green roof movement and local food movement have inspired municipalities and developers to put greenhouses on top of restaurants, apartment complexes and more, and this is the best company in the world for that type of work.” Meanwhile, “Niagrow is a heating systems provider for the other companies. We used to subcontract to Niagrow and then we purchased them and brought them in-house,” Coulter explains. “But all of the companies operate as completely separate organizations as well.”
