Jeffries is the name generations of South Australians have grown to trust for a comprehensive range of quality garden products and landscaping supplies.
Our story began in the 1930s when great grandfather Fred Jeffries with a number three shovel and an Albion truck loaded and carted horse manure from Mallala to Nurseries such as Lasscocks. His son, also Fred, sourced, and delivered soils to Adelaide’s home gardens and the emerging landscape trade. The early days involved a lot of hard physical labour and long hours. The work was tough and demanding.
Eventually the supply of nearby quality loam, (mainly from deposits in the Gawler River area) used by Jeffries to blend Jeffries Garden Soils (as the company was then known) began to run out. As the supply diminished and the demand increased, the company needed to totally change the way it operated.
Third generation Managing Director Len Jeffries recognised that if suitable soils were no longer available, for the company to survive, it would have to ‘manufacture’ material to meet the needs of their customers and suppliers. It needed a radical rethink and reorganisation.
With the increasing volume of green organic material being produced by Adelaide’s gardeners and councils, Len fell on the idea of producing soil additives in the form of composts and mulches. In the early 1980s there was an increasing understanding of the need for material that would assist both soil improvement and plant growth. |
Jeffries Garden Soils wrote the compost instruction manual as they went. They researched the world to identify what they had to do to consistently produce high quality composts and mulches using green organics and recyclable material.
They needed regular supplies of clean green organic material and space to build composting windrows. Agreements for delivery of material were signed with local councils and the company moved to larger premises on the edge of metropolitan Adelaide on Cormack Road.
Since 2000, fourth generation Managing Director Lachlan Jeffries has overseen the further significant expansion of the Jeffries Group to new locations to Wingfield and a 123-hectare multi million-dollar world-class environmental organics recycling development north of Adelaide at Buckland Park.
The Jeffries Group now employs more than 40 people, turns over ten million dollars a year and recycles 100,000 tonnes of green organics a year. It’s a true South Australian success story – and a long way from a number three shovel and an Albion truck.
The Jeffries Group today is deservedly proud of its role as a pioneer and leader in environmental green organics recycling and composting in Australia. |
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