The Retail Garden Centre at Aubin Nurseries in Carman will close permanently on Oct. 11.
Aubin Nurseries is a family-owned business that has grown to over 500 acres since 1927. The tree nursery and garden centre provides hundreds of garden centres and landscapers with the best perennials, container-grown shrubs, pot-in-pot trees and B&B Prestige Select plants.
The company started in 1927 and will be celebrating 100 years in three years time. Aubin’s began as a U-Pick, with people coming from all over including Winnipeg, to pick their own fruit.
Gerald Aubin started the company, and now the family is into its fourth generation of ownership in the business. Gerald passed away in 1958 and Lawrence Aubin unexpectedly took over at 21 years old. Gerry Jr. then became president in 1997, as Lawrence was starting to slowly retire.
In the 1960s, a more formal retail storefront was added with a roof where it is currently, and this was a good and busy time for the next three decades into the 1990s before chain stores ever made an appearance in the industry.
“Throughout most of our 97-year history, retail sales were a large part of the business, but now the overwhelming majority of our sales are through wholesale customers,” said Aubin Nurseries vice-president Jared Aubin. “Our operations have expanded to become a large wholesale grower, supplying hundreds of independent garden centres, commercial landscapers and other growers — from Alberta to Northern Ontario. We need to focus all our time and efforts on this market to stay successful. Our business model has evolved, and from a supply chain perspective, this is the best way forward for our business to operate efficiently.”
Homeowners can still find Aubin’s products under the Rooted Living brand at independent and local garden centres. They also supply these retail outlets with Bloomin’ Easy and First Editions plants, which Aubin’s is now the proud licensed grower of.
The storefront is open until Oct. 11. The wholesale division remains operational. There won’t be too much changes to the Aubin’s staff as they employ around 50 people during peak season, and the retail store was only about 3-4 employees most of the time, on and off.
“The Aubin family and staff would like to thank local gardeners for their decades of support and business,” said Aubin. “We look forward to continuing supplying the local market through independent garden centres and not being in direct competition with a retail storefront.”
