History
Willits & Newcomb Citrus Nursery was established in the late 1940's, by cousins Albert Newcomb and Ned Willits, to fill the needs of the California's expanding citrus industry. The nursery was originally located in the Coachella Valley near Thermal, California.
But housing was rapidly becoming the big commodity in Southern California and citrus production in that area did a vanishing act. This situation caused the nursery to move to the Arvin area in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. The company became incorporated in 1961 shortly after the move to California's central valley.
A severe windstorm in December of 1977 wreaked havoc on the nursery. The office was destroyed and the seed and scion orchard had heavy damage. A young couple, just hired by Albert Newcomb, had been on the job for 10 days. Mr. Newcomb was far beyond a normal retirement age and rather than rebuild he chose to sell the business to the young couple. And so that is how I fell into this delightful business in May 1978. In 1992 I became the sole stockholder and company President.
With my dedicated and loyal posse of co-workers many great strides have been made in our business over the last 30 years. The nursery tree production was expanded in 1984 with the acquisition of a neighboring nursery. W&N went from producing about 17,000 trees a year to over 250,000 overnight with the wave of a pen and those numbers continue to grow. Our citrus propagating materials are still shipped to nurserypersons and researchers in over 110 nations worldwide. The company expanded into selling trees into the retail markets beginning in 1992 and continues to grow fabulous trees for that market.
The Company was originally developed to fill the needs of all areas of the citrus nursery industry and we continue to do just that over six decades later.
Our Vision is to be the citrus industry's leading resource for the finest quality nursery products, knowledge and service.
All of us at Willits & Newcomb work diligently everyday to retain our vision. We continually strive to be a dynamic, innovative company excelling in quality citrus nursery products and customer service.
Sincerely,
Jackie
Jackie Maxwell
Proud President of
Willits & Newcomb, Inc.
I welcome comments, questions and happy to tell more of our history just email jackiem@wncitrus.com