Our Story

The longevity and success of Garlico Marlborough can be summed up in one word, ‘QUALITY’.  

The Garlico team’s agricultural and horticultural knowledge of the Marlborough landscape and their long-term associations with quality local businesses ensures quality product is grown and packaged in Marlborough.

Down to earth, practical, and straight talking, Garlico’s owners, brothers Alan and Robert are extremely proud that they grow their crops in the Marlborough area.  ‘It just seems right,’ they say, ‘to stay local where we know we can grow great garlic and shallots.’

Born and bred in Marlborough, Alan and Robert insist on a hands-on approach.  Sourcing lease land, working the ground for planting, harvesting crops, packing, and marketing, the brothers are at the helm every step of the way.  Ably assisted by their indispensable permanent staff and teams of seasonal workers both within the fields and in the packhouse, they provide garlic and shallots to local, national, and international markets twelve months of the year.

‍

OUR HISTORY

Theirs is a family business established in the 1970’s when garlic growing in Marlborough was experiencing its horticultural hey-day.  Cousins Peter Jones and Tony Tripe with their wives, Lorna and Marion built up the Piquant Garlic brand, with their garlic being aligned to MG Marketing and exported to Australia, Fiji and the Islands. Their children grew up being heavily involved in the industry especially in the early days, hand shifting irrigation pipes, driving tractors through harvest, and helping as supervisors in the fields.

When it came time for the senior family members to retire, Alan and Robert stepped up in 2003 and bought into the business with their father, Peter, becoming 2nd generation commercial garlic growers. The brand name became Garlico in 2013, although garlic is no longer their sole commodity. They also grow shallots (the sweet cousin of onions) which are extremely popular in salads, in Asian cooking and particularly delicious roasted.  

PRESENT DAY

Quality is Garlico’s word for success and reliability is the king pin of the business.

Their consistent supply of product to Turners Fresh, MG Marketing and Fresh Direct is distributed to restaurants and supermarkets, and via My Food Bag throughout New Zealand. Garlico also supplies the New Zealand public directly through their on-site store and online shopping while currently exporting shallots to the USA and the Pacific Islands.

The business operation has evolved and streamlined over the years.  And despite constant requests to branch out into the production of condiments, the ‘boys’ stick to what they know best, growing world class crops, preferring to remain suppliers to the experts such as Barkers who produce the world class condiments.

With true entrepreneurial spirit Alan and Robert have expanded their skill set, growing rotational crops, grain and mustard seed for commercial distribution, and onion seed is grown under contract for seed companies.

Instead of letting the tractors and machinery sit idle between harvesting and planting they use their seasonal downtime to run an agricultural contracting business working primarily in vineyard development, inter-row cultivation and mowing for vineyard corporates, as well as making land ‘crop-ready’ for Marlborough farmers.

When the cost of hiring beehives for onion seed pollination became prohibitive, they ventured into the honey business as the Old Road Honey Company, mainly to ensure they had hives when and where they needed them.  The honey produced is sold in their on-site store, a tasty addition to the fresh garlic and shallots available.  

‍