12 CapitalPress.com
August 19, 2016
Alpha Nursery treats employees like family
By JANAE SARGENT
Capital Press
Doug Zeilinski, owner of
Alpha Nursery, credits his em-
ployees with the growth and
success of his business.
Alpha Nursery is a fami-
ly-owned container nursery
that sells more than 750 vari-
eties of plants across the U.S.
Started in 1978 by Zeilins-
ki, a 23-year-old Oregon State
University college graduate, it
has grown from 3 acres to 150
and bases its success on inno-
vation, diversiication and em-
ployee empowerment.
One of those employees is
RJ Tancredi, general manager,
who has been at the nursery 36
Janae Sargent/Capital Press
Doug Zielinski, owner of Alpha Nursery, sits in his ofice. Zielinski
started the container nursery when he was 23. It has grown to a
150-acre operation.
years, since it was started. He
remembers walking through
the original property with Zeil-
inski and imagining the future.
“I grew up with this pro-
gram, a lot of us did,” said Tan-
credi. “This was my irst job
and will probably be my last.”
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Tancredi is the lon-
gest-tenured employee at Al-
pha Nursery but not the only
one that has made Alpha a
career. Zeilinski said at least
two dozen of his 50 employ-
ees have been at Alpha at
least 15 years.
When employees reach the
15-year mark, Zeilinski gives
them a gold Alpha Nursery
watch as a way to commemo-
rate their place at the company.
Employee value and em-
powerment is a cornerstone
that is honored far before em-
ployees reach their 15-year
mark.
Alpha Nursery maintains
a full-time staff of 38 crew
workers and 12 staff. Every
employee at Alpha has re-
ceived health insurance, vaca-
tion and sick pay for the last 15
years. Zeilinski and the other
managers conduct reviews and
report cards for each employee
to determine bonuses and rais-
es, honor outstanding employ-
ees with plaques, hold regular
barbecues and parties and even
let employees name the equip-
ment they work with.
“If we didn’t have them, we
wouldn’t have this,” Zeilinski
said.
Family is another part of
the nursery’s growth; Tancredi
said he ended up being “Uncle
RJ” to Zeilinski’s two sons,
Scott and Josh.
Scott Zeilinski now manag-
es the Zeilinski farm in Keiz-
er, Ore., and Josh works at the
nursery in nearby Salem.
Zeilinski originally grew up
on the farm with his dad, Ernie.
He said having the farm has al-
lowed the nursery to take more
risks and has helped offset times
when the nursery didn’t bring in
as much money as other years.
Josh said he remembers
working with the irrigation crew
when he was 6 for 75 cents an
hour to save up to buy Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtle action ig-
ures at K-Mart.
After graduating from Pep-
perdine University and working
at a large California nursery,
Josh returned to Alpha to get
back to the way a family nursery
operates.
“It’s more fun working at
a place like this,” he said. “We
have a lot less employees so we
get to know everyone personal-
ly.”
Doug Zeilinski said Josh is
always out working with the
grounds crew to get to know
them and to get out of his of-
ice.
Tancredi joked that when
he dies, his wife will have to
sprinkle his ashes at the nursery
because he’s put so much of his
heart into it.
“I’m not a religious person
but I have a lot of faith and
this nursery is about as close to
church as it can get,” Tancredi
said.
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