In our news today: SPOTLIGHT ON PRT VERNON The weather, the water, the workers...this operation has it all.

Transcription

1 December 2015 In our news today: SPOTLIGHT ON PRT VERNON The weather, the water, the workers...this operation has it all. MORE THAN SATISFYING RESULTS 2015 PRT customer satisfaction survey proves we re on track. DID YOU KNOW...? Canada has more sustainable forests than any country in the world. GO TEAM GROW! PRT salutes our amazing team of growers in Canada and the US.

2 LET S PAY A VISIT TO PRT VERNON. The open compound overlooking Okanagan Landing at PRT Vernon. As well as being home to many award winning wineries, abundant fruit orchards, tourist attractions and four season sports venues, British Columbia's Okanagan Valley is home to three PRT nurseries PRT Armstrong, PRT Coldstream and PRT Vernon. Today we re putting a spotlight on PRT Vernon. Amongst the original six nurseries PRT acquired from the BC government in the 1980s, PRT Vernon was one of the first operations run by our company. In the 1990s, the nursery was moved to its present Bench Road location, high on a spectacular plateau overlooking Okanagan Landing. Situated within the Vernon city limits at the northernmost end of Okanagan Lake, there is no question this nursery boasts an enviable location. On one side is the famous Predator Ridge Resort and on the far side of the valley you can see The Rise, another famous golf course. However, here at PRT, we are more interested in greenhouses than greens. We grow over 25 million seedlings outdoors here each year.

3 Adjoining the Vernon Seed Orchard, this PRT nursery complex comprises 34 hectares (84 acres) of greenhouses and open compounds. While the climate is described as semi arid, water is not a problem. The City of Vernon provides treated water from their nearby treatment plant to all agricultural operations on Bench Road giving our nursery an unlimited nutrient rich water supply year round. PRT Vernon s hardiness zone is 5a, temperate and perfect for growing pine seedlings from anywhere in North America in its outdoor compounds. The region boasts 152 frost free growing days annually, cold winters with mild periods and warm summers with average July maximum temperatures over 30C (90F). PRT Vernon currently grows more than 25 million outdoor seedlings and two million to three million greenhouse seedlings per year for customers from all over North America including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, the Great Lake States and the US Pacific Northwest. Over the past few years, PRT Vernon has increased outdoor capacity and improved our lifting capabilities. We are proud of our site, says Nursery Manager Olivier Bonnefoy. The talented PRT employees we have here along with our excellent location produce amazing forest seedling crops. Olivier Bonnefoy, Nursery Manager This has been part of a continuing series highlighting our nursery operations across North America. For further information on PRT Vernon, please contact Dan Livingston, Customer Support Representative, Southern BC at

4 CAN T GET NO SATISFACTION? YOU WILL HERE. So much for that famous Rolling Stones anthem. In August 2015, we conducted our second online customer satisfaction survey and we re pleased to report PRT customers are telling us we are on the right track. Once again, more than 80% of respondents were very satisfied with the level of service provided by their PRT Customer Support Representative and Customer Support Assistant. Our goal is to provide top notch service and seeing this high score remain unchanged from 2013 was truly gratifying. The comparative survey results are illustrative, says Herb Markgraf, Vice President of Marketing. By following up two years later, we confirm identified trends, what is important to our customers and how we ve fared on specific improvement goals. From the 2013 survey, a few areas of improvement were targeted. One such area was Quality and Preparation of the PRT Nursery for Nursery Visits. It was good to see a marked improvement here to almost 90% in 2015 from below 80% in the previous survey. Among other key findings, the Customer Expectations section focused on what factors were most important to our customers in choosing a nursery. The 2015 results confirmed that quality of seedlings (96%), reliability in meeting customer contracts (73%) and service (55%) were still of highest importance. Looking at the graph, you can see other factors such as seedling price and local nursery presence scored far lower in both surveys. What is important to our customers in choosing a nursery? The 2015 survey was sent to 348 primary and secondary customer contacts from PRT s customer database with a total of 102 responses (29%). In terms of survey accuracy, this translates to a confidence level of 95% with a margin of error of +/ 8.2%. We would like to thank everyone who took the time to participate in the survey. Your input is greatly appreciated and gives us valuable direction for improvement. In recognition of your help, a total donation of $1020 ($10 per completed survey) was made to the Canadian and American Cancer societies. While the customer survey process is just one of many ways our customers have to communicate with us, it is an important one, says Markgraf. The information it gathers augments the feedback we get from direct contact with customers and helps us assess how we re improving specific issues and our overall customer focus.

5 DID YOU KNOW...? Canada is a world leader in sustainable forest management. We have 161 million hectares of forest that is independently certified as sustainably managed 43% of the world s certified forests. For more than 20 years, Canada s rate of deforestation has been virtually zero. Less than 0.5% of the nation s total forest area is harvested each year and all forests harvested on public lands must be regenerated. Learn more on the Natural Resources Canada website: forest management/13169

6 WE TAKE OFF OUR HATS TO OUR GROWERS. As we have done in previous issues, we would like to recognize another group of PRT employees who play an extremely important role in the continued success of our company: PRT s growers. Quite literally, they are responsible for our growth, and in many ways, our tag line Trusted to Grow finds its roots with them. They re key employees in our company, says Glenn Goodwill, Customer Support Representative for Alberta/Saskatchewan. So much revolves around them. He s right. From planning the layout of crops at nurseries to ordering supplies, reviewing seed requirements, overseeing sowing, crop plan monitoring, lifting, packaging and shipping seedlings, PRT growers do it all. Minimizing seed usage, quality assurance...their knowledge is vast. Our growers ensure customers reliably get exactly what was ordered to specification and to schedule. It takes a great deal of skill and an eye for detail to get from seed stratification to field ready seedlings and the grow teams do a wonderful job of providing seedlings for our future forests year after year, says Goodwill. PRT employs more than 20 growers throughout our 12 nursery sites. They are dedicated, hardworking men and women who are at the nursery early each day and frequently late at night as well. On call for emergency situations, they ll return to the nursery during their off hours to respond to climate alarms from our computerized monitoring systems. It s just what we do, says Ed Wood, Grower 1 at PRT Beaverlodge in Alberta. Growing seedlings reliably for our customers is what makes this job both challenging and fun. To all our growers, thank you! Our customers and everyone at PRT appreciate your hard work and expertise. Our admiration for you and the work you do grows every day. Ed Wood uses voice activated software to record crop measurements at PRT Beaverlodge.

7 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at PRT. We wish all of you our customers, partners and friends a bright, healthy and prosperous New Year in Contact Us For more information, please visit our website at To contact our editor, to comment on a story or to report any concerns, please click here.