“There comes a point when an older building cannot be maintained and kept to code, that is the point that we reached” comments Scott Burlingham, prior owner of Woodburn Fertilizer. “It was a tough decision to make to pull down an office that both my father and grandfather had worked in”. The walls of Scott’s new office are decorated with pictures that show the long history of the business in Woodburn and its links with the original G. Burlingham & Sons business that was established in the UK in 1850.

In starting the process of designing and building the new office,
Scott Burlingham engaged the services of RSS Architects for the design and Triplett Wellman, to manage the contract building operations. “The key stipulations that Scott made to us were that we should build a unique, bright and light working environment and that we should support the local community by using local construction and supply businesses” commented Ken Triplett of Triplett Wellman. In the end, over 75% of all the costs of construction were spent with businesses within a 20 mile radius of Woodburn, a fact that Scott Burlingham is very proud of.

The building process started in May of 2003 with Woodburn Fertilizer moving their entire operation into a modular office, the old office was demolished and the building process started. The team moved back into the new office on the 17th of November, over 2 months ahead of schedule.



The new office is striking. Customers entering the building will find that the open plan office has a 36 foot ceiling with exposed duct work and lighting, with second floor offices and a substantial training room. A colorful new retail area showcases a broad range of garden chemicals & animal feed supplies as well as bags of specialty fertilizer and grass seed. The stock of products in the retail area has been built up in direct response to customers’ requests over the last 60 years. “Some products are stocked just for specific customers and have been for many years” says Steve Mckay who looks after the retail area.

“We have really been looking forward to moving into this new office” states Stephanie McKillip, Office Manager. “The new layout gives everybody
more space and allows us to work better and serve customers more efficiently”. Stephanie is Scott Burlingham’s daughter. Stephanie has worked for Woodburn Fertilizer since 1994 and is a
key part of the operation.

“For me, one of the most important elements of the new building is the training room and conference area” states Andy Burlingham, Sales Manager. “One of our major goals is to expand our ability to share knowledge by holding regular informative meetings for our customers using either our own staff or inviting others in”.

Woodburn sits in the heart of one of the most varied farming environments that you will find anywhere. Just simply breaking it down into the basic categories of ‘agriculture’, ‘nursery’, ‘turf and ornamental’ is not sufficient to describe the unique variety of crops and products that are grown here. We have grass crops, next to vegetables, next to hops, next to Christmas trees, next to nursery plant production; the list is endless.

Woodburn Fertilizer fieldmen and staff work to understand and support all these different crops, providing sound growing advice as well as the products that are needed to help maximize yields including blended fertilizers and agrochemicals. Andy Burlingham sees that the role extends beyond supplying products into helping growers to understand the wide ranging and ever changing environmental legislation that affects their businesses.

With the new building now complete Woodburn Fertilizer is encouraging people to come in and take a look around. “I am not sure if people are aware that we are both a wholesale and retail operation” says Andy “anybody can come in and buy things ranging from fertilizers to garden care products to animal feed and water softening salt. Any member of the staff will gladly serve you and even load your purchases into your vehicle”.