Staff Profile-Craig Rich - Operations Manager

Craig joined Alpine Dural in 2002 as the Trademart manager. Craig came on board with a retail garden centre background and quickly set about implementing the Trademart expansion that was part of Alpine’s business plan. Craig also introduced a new level of customer service and plant selection to the Trademart which has been maintained to this day.

More recently Craig has been using his contacts to purchase stock to overcome stock shortfalls and bolster our production and this was the prelude to him becoming the Operations Manager. The Operations role covers production planning which entails looking at which of our four sites would best suit a particular crop, how many we need to produce and monitoring how well they are selling. It also involves looking at what new plants we take on and assessing their merits whilst they are under production.

Craig is also involved in the logistics of planning the transport of plants that have to be moved to Sydney from our Alstonville and Brisbane nurseries. This is a daily challenge and needs constant monitoring to ensure that our Dural nursery is kept well stocked with all the plants that are grown in our northern nurseries.

As well as his operational duties Craig still maintains a direct contact with several of our larger customers and is the company’s main contact with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, AILA. Craig has enjoyed 3 years of direct contact with AILA and has helped Alpine forge a strong alliance with the landscape architecture community. He has been asked to speak at a number of seminars on subjects ranging from new release plants to more detailed discussions on species selection and tree planting methodology.

Craig is a qualified horticulturalist and a passionate plants person and is always on the look out for new forms and varieties of plants for Alpine to trial. He is in regular contact with plant breeders and has established a trialing system so we can track and monitor new plants so we are more confidant of their success.