Garden Center Nursery Operations Manager

Colonial Gardens, located in Blue Springs, MO, was added to our brand family in 2016. Founded in 1969, renovations began in 2017 to create an agritourism destination.  It is the garden center, reimagined! We offer a greenhouse, nursery, café and coffee shop, event space, and farmer’s market.  It’s where plants, food and farms connect. Educational classes promoting local agriculture and sustainability as well as private events are also offered.

Colonial Gardens is part of the DCA Outdoor family of brands. We are vertically integrated and take pride in being an industry leader. We’re not only streamlining the production and distribution of landscape products, but we are also working to reduce the carbon footprint. Through our continued growth and innovation, we will have the highest impact on our world.

Colonial Gardens is searching for a proactive, assertive, and self-driven Nursery Operations Manager that is a leader that inspires and motivates the team to thrive in a fast-paced environment. The right candidate will have experience in developing teams to be motivated to meet customer needs through exceptional service, understand the importance of providing a great guest experience, and express a high energy and motivation to optimize and drive business, sales, and exceed company goals.

The Nursery Operations Manager will be responsible for operations and success of three departments, Hardscapes, Nursery, and Perennials. Key success will include but limit to managing and developing these teams to be motivated in providing a positive customer experience, a productive shopping environment, proactively drive sales and support events, provide plant care, ensure merchandising is current with seasonal needs, maintain inventory stocked, while meeting financial responsibilities in accordance with organizational goals.

Key Responsibilities:  

• Operations Management: Lead and manage to optimize revenue expectations and staffing of assigned departments to appropriate seasonal budget targets and to meet customer service needs
• Customer Service & Merchandising: Responsible for exceptional engagement with internal and external customers in support of assigned departments. Accountable for visual merchandising, signage, planograms, min/max models, and space utilization, while maintaining a safe work and customer environment
• Inventory & Equipment Management: Accountable for the optimal inventory assortment, inventory planning, merchandise replenishment for departments during seasonal changes. Maintain quality control of all equipment, assets, physical plants, and maintenance for departments
• Leadership: Lead, manage, and hold accountable the staff of all three departments and partner with all other management to execute successful operations across all departments

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:  

• Ability to lead teams in a positive way with a ‘can do’ attitude 
• Strategic operational department planning 
• Ability to work in a fast paced, team environment 
• Attention to detail 
• Adhere to all safety rules and requirements 

Minimum Qualifications:  

• Required: 5-7 years in Retail/Garden Center environment
• Required: High school diploma or GED equivalent 
• Required: BS (Bachelor of Science) in Horticulture, or comparable work experience with trees, shrubs and perennials, nursery, and landscape environments 
• Required: 5 years of team management and successfully leading teams
• Preferred: Experience in a nursery or retail environment 

Benefits you will Enjoy:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance 1st of the month after 30 days
• Generous 401k match with immediate vesting
• Company paid life insurance, STD, & LTD
• PTO and paid holidays
• Company culture centered around growth and innovation
• Career development & recognition

DCA Outdoor, Inc, is a values based, purpose driven organization in service to our family of 12 brands.  We operate in 6 states, have 700 employees with revenues of $99mm. We have revolutionized the green industry through national, vertical integration. As an industry leader, our mission is to cultivate growth for our customers, our employees, our company, and our world.

Our Definite Chief Aim (DCA) is to streamline the production and distribution of landscape products. We are focused on growth, innovation, and collaboration, and believe these are the keys to our continued success and will have the highest impact on our world.

We honor our core values and expect our employees to as well.  They are work hard, take pride in your work, be optimistic and respectful, show commitment, and continually grow.

We invite individuals who think like we do and will position us for major organizational growth to apply today.  Join us in revolutionizing the green industry! If you meet the criteria for this position, please apply today. 

All applicants will be required to take the Culture Index survey. If you’d like to be considered faster, please copy and paste the following into your browser to complete the survey now: https://go.apply.ci/s/A550CC0000

Come change the planet with us!