A Chat with Young Retailer Award Winner Ashleigh Munro

Do you know any young retailers who go above and beyond the call of duty to create fantastic shopping environments at garden centers of all shapes and sizes? Or maybe you work with a young person who’s demonstrated a real knack for the financial aspects of managing a business and has increased profits in the face of growing competition. Ashleigh Munro from Kiwi Nurseries has demonstrated those skills and recently won the Young Retailers Award at Cultivate ’22 in July for her work. Ashleigh makes the fourth Canadian to win the Young Retailer Award since the program started 18 years ago.

Kiwi Nurseries was also an Alberta Finalist in The Alberta Business Awards of Distinction 2022 held through Alberta Chamber of Commerce for marketing. This effort was spearheaded by Ashleigh and her admin assistant, Brianna. Kiwi Nurseries won The Greater Parkland Regional Chamber award for marketing in November 2021 and was encouraged to submit our application into the provincial awards.

With all her recent successes, we chatted with Ashleigh about her career and advice for other young up and coming industry professionals.

Landscape Alberta (LA): Tell me about deciding to make the family business your career. Ashleigh Munro (AM): Originally, I didn’t want to be part of the family business as I saw it as helping my family and not a career. After working for other companies and seeing inefficiencies and the inability for these other companies to change things immediately, I began to appreciate how fast you can fix problems in a family business and have the freedom to try new things.

LA: What would you say has gotten you to this point in career and the success you have seen in recent months? AM: The ability to think outside of the box and not being afraid to try new things. We have tried a lot of new ideas in the last few years, and they aren’t always a success right away. Sometimes you need to let your ideas get some traction before calling them a failure, our haunted house took three years to go from 10 people a night to 1200 people in a night.

LA: Why have you continued involvement with associations/business groups? AM: I think it is important to connect with your peers and have open communication with each other. The stronger the industry is, the more it makes each individual business stronger as well. Making strong connections with other businesses allows you to grow your business and network and gives you someone to call on in times of need or prosperity. Being part of the community is a big focus for our business, because if you don’t have the support of the community your business will not survive.

LA: What has been your biggest takeaway from industry tours such as IGCA and local? AM: Being able to see how much more there is to garden centres in other countries shows how far behind Canadian garden centres are and how much room for growth there is. There is no limit to what a garden centre can be, and this has helped us expand our business to include more than just plants. Each garden centre can show their unique differences and company culture on the tours, which is a great way to inspire new ideas and growth.

LA: Do you have any advice for other young horticulturists? AM: If you have the passion for this industry there is no limit to how far you can grow. The key is to find the right company for you to be able to prosper in and expand your knowledge and skill set. The right fit will nurture your passion and help you find creativity and create new ideas in any position. If you find you are not the right fit, it may not be the right fit for that company, but you could still be the fit for the industry as companies will have vastly different company cultures.

Thank you or Ashleigh for taking the time to answer our questions. Congrats to Ashleigh and Kiwi Nurseries on the recent successes!