The Collison family have been producing high quality, fresh cut flowers in West Norfolk for three generations.
Tuxhill Farm was purchased in 1966 by Bryan and June Collison and it has been the centre of the business since then. The Farm was originally run as a traditional market garden. Flowers were always an important part of the rotation and gradually grew to become the mainstay of the business.
The next chapter was J.A. Collison & Sons, set up in 1994 following the death of Bryan Collison. Son Philip and his wife Diane returned to take over the running of the business alongside June (J.A.). Brothers Martin and Ian also became partners in the business and assisted when time allowed. Over the next few years the business grew steadily with flowers becoming ever more important as focus shifted to supplying UK supermarket customers. The business expanded taking on more growing sites as customer demand grew. In 2001 Ian returned to the business full time after finishing his education. Around this time the amount of on farm packing began to increase dramatically a result of customer demands for the freshest product and improved efficiency. Producing packed product, ready for direct dispatch in to store allowed value to be added to the product, boosting returns. Martin left the business in 2008 to pursue his own business interests, but the business remains entirely family run to this day.
The last few years have seen further expansion with more sites added and new development at Tuxhill Farm where we have more glasshouse area, 2 biomass heating systems, increased cold storage, extra packing capacity and improved infrastructure. A large program of investment is currently underway, increasing production and adding further automation to the tulip production glasshouses. A new packhouse and cold stores are also being added. We now produce flowers 12 months a year from 6 nurseries.
We are proud to be a sustainable family run business, and our history is an important part of what guides us in business.
We care about how we farm and grow, as Tuxhill Farm is also our family home.