Headstart Nursery, Large Business of the Year
As their name suggests, the folks at Headstart Nursery make
things a little easier for West Coast growers. Since 1979,
Headstart Nursery has held and transported seedlings to growers in
California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and New Mexico, said
co-owner Steve Costa.
Headstart Nursery, Large Business of the Year
What the business does: As their name suggests, the folks at Headstart Nursery make things a little easier for West Coast growers.
Since 1979, Headstart Nursery has held and transported seedlings to growers in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and New Mexico, said co-owner Steve Costa. He founded the nursery with longtime friends Don and Bill Christopher after graduating from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The business is a wholesale nursery with the majority of Headstart Nursery’s clients being commercial farmers.
“We’re propagators,” Costa said.
Today, the nursery ships roughly 500 million vegetable transplants and floral plugs every year and employs 220 people, Costa said. In addition to the main facility in Gilroy, Headstart Nursery also has greenhouses in Coachella Valley south of Palm Springs. The nursery’s biggest products by volume are celery and bell peppers. It’s biggest product in terms of sales is seedless watermelon.
About 85 percent of what the nursery ships are vegetables, the other 15 percent encompassing ornamental plants. The nursery built six greenhouses in Gilroy to hold the company’s first order of bell pepper transplants for Christopher Ranch. That first successful season led to more orders. Together the Costa and Christopher brothers built more greenhouses to accommodate increased orders.
In 1979, the first facility was approximately 42,000 square feet in size. Today, it’s 1.6 million, Costa said.
Why the business received the award: Headstart Nursery may be a business success story, but the company has also shown a genuine commitment to the Gilroy community. Every year Headstart Nursery grows red poinsettias, which it sells at a discounted price for local school and nonprofit fundraisers. Organizations such as the Gilroy Garlic Festival, the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, the Gilroy Rotary Club and Gilroy Foundation have benefited from the support and leadership from Steve and Randy Costa and the Headstart Nursery team.
On the charitable side, Randy Costa said they’re just following the lead of other Gilroyans.
“There’s a lot of people concerned about Gilroy and trying to make it better,” he said. “A lot of people want to give back. It’s a very involved community, I think. It’s an awesome thing to be a part of. You get caught up in volunteering and you meet a lot of good friends that way,” he said.
In their own words: “Large business is really more of a team deal. It’s a nice award, but I don’t really take it personally. I take it as a team deal because everyone has to do their job to be successful,” Steve Costa said.
