Berry farm owner puts faith in quality

The new owner of Windermere Gardens wants to keep the land growing beautiful, high-quality berries and employing Wanganui people.

"I want to build a brand synonymous with quality and Wanganui, and I'm very confident that we can achieve that," Tony Boswell said.

He was born and raised in Wanganui and took ownership of the gardens last Friday. He bought the property in a mortgagee sale from brothers Bruce and Glenn Walker.

He had worked there himself as a teenager and sent his daughters to work there during summers when the family lived in Wellington.

"Young kids need to learn what a hard day's work for a fair day's pay is," he said.

He is now looking for a general manager for the property but ultimately would like to move his family back to Wanganui and be there himself.

He said the strawberry crop would be one-third less than usual this summer because 50,000 plants weren't planted in June. Five staff were now tending the 80,000 strawberry plants there, and fewer pickers than usual would be needed this summer.

He intends to increase the crop the following summer.

He wouldn't have set up a cafe at the gardens himself but intends to keep it going now that it exists.

He's pretty sure berry farms can make a profit, but said some things might have to be done differently. For example, high-quality berries should be sold to restaurants at $30/kg or for freezing at $6-7/kg, rather than for jam at $2.20/kg.

He's no expert on berry farming, but said he would be talking to other tenderers, consultants and his manager to refine a business plan for the place.

"I looked at [the Walker brothers'] business plan. From what I could see, there was a lot of things that were right with it."

The brothers inherited a steadily increasing debt from their father, but still could have made a go of the place if bad weather had not trimmed $300,000 from this year's late summer crop, he said.

"It was extremely difficult, and things didn't go their way."

Like the brothers, Mr Boswell wants to keep the berry farm going despite the land's higher value as potential lifestyle blocks.

After growing up in Wanganui, he spent 16 years in the banking industry, working first for Westpac and then for the ASB. Most recently he's been living in New Plymouth and owns the New Plymouth franchise of Quest serviced apartments.

He said he tried to return to Wanganui five years ago, with $2.7 million to invest in a bowling complex - but he couldn't get the land he needed and invested in Palmerston North instead.