Pleasant View Gardens creates employee-run Quality Council

Long known for exceptional plants, Pleasant View Gardens is taking quality focus to new heights with its new employee-run Quality Council.

The 12-person team—with a representative from each department—is charged with raising the bar on quality at Pleasant View. That's no small task, given the company’s consistent 99-percent quality ranking from customers.

“We’re constantly looking at how to do it better and have a positive impact on our customers,” said Henry Huntington, President of Pleasant View Gardens, located in Loudon, N.H. “The Quality Council is just one way we do that—they’re looking at how we bill, how we ship, how we stick. Nothing is sacred—they’re raising quality awareness throughout the company as a whole.”

The Quality Council empowers employees at all levels in every area to impact the finished product and better serve customers.

"Our entire company knows, from our accounting department to our shipping department, that we are all accountable for the quality of our plants. It is up to us to keep raising the bar internally on quality,” said Quality Council member Valerie Rollins.

Pleasant View’s Quality Council meets bimonthly to strategize on quality improvement from the inside out, making department- and product-specific recommendations.

Most recently, the group helped intensify PVG’s already-stringent liner specs. On the Council’s recommendation, complete variety-specific reference books with specifications and pictures reside in every greenhouse and are available to employees in every department. The implementation sets clear-cut expectations for PVG liners—almost making a perishable a widget.

“The philosophy of the Council is that quality must be a consideration at every level of the organization and at every step in the process,” said Huntington. “Listening to our customers and the employees who interact with them each day is a priority for the Council and is ultimately what ensures quality results.”

Council members are (pictured above, from left to right: Pete Gilmore, Joe Bibbo, Jeff Huntington, Mike Goyette, Scott Hahn, Nancy Sampson, Kathleen Bell, Michael Currier, Jeff Lozier, Henry Huntington, Valerie Rolls, and Carol Huntington.