History of Andy Mast Greenhouses Inc.
Andy Mast Greenhouses founder, Neal Mast, was born in the Netherlands on June 3rd, 1922. He began working in the family greenhouse business as a young boy. He continued to work there, alongside his father, through WWII. During this time, he met and married his wife Jackie and in 1946, their first child, Andy, was born. Life after the war was tough in the Netherlands, so Neal and Jackie decided to take their young family and immigrate to America. Upon arriving in the U.S., Neal started working in different foundries and factories, until he was able to rent a small greenhouse in 1954. Neal worked both jobs; greenhouse during the day and factory at night. Many times, he would run over to the greenhouse at night during his lunch break to shovel coal in the boiler to keep the greenhouse warm. After several years of working two jobs, Neal was able to save enough money to purchase a greenhouse with some adjacent vacant land. From these humble beginnings, Andy Mast Greenhouses was born.
Andy, like his father, started to work in the greenhouse at a young age; tackling odd jobs and helping where needed. After graduating from high school, Andy attended the college of horticulture at Michigan State University. In 1968, Andy married Jacoba (Coby) and volunteered to join the US Navy during the Vietnam War, serving aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. Upon completing his tour of duty, Andy returned home in 1970 and went into partnership with his father at Neal Mast and Sons Greenhouse. In 1975, Andy bought the land and greenhouse from his father and established Andy Mast Greenhouses.
Through the next two decades, Andy and Coby worked at raising a family of six, while continuing to develop the business. Like the generation before, Andy and Coby’s children grew up working in the business. At the start, the original greenhouse was 60,000 square feet. By the late 1980’s, after several expansions, the greenhouse had grown to 138,000 square feet. By the mid-1990s, the Greenhouses had grown beyond their existing boundaries. An additional greenhouse location was purchased in Muskegon, adding 65,000 square feet more of production space to the thriving business. Through the early 2000’s, there were several more expansions and by 2008, the Muskegon facility had grown to 216,000 square feet, with an additional 20 acres of outside summer production available as well. In 2011, another location was purchased in Holland MI, adding 299,000 square feet of production space. With the latest addition, the total production area under cover reached 653,000 square feet.
Andy’s sons Dave and Dan Mast bought the business from Andy and Coby and, along with a dedicated team of sales, marketing and production employees, have continued to carry on the legacy of quality and service that has been Andy Mast Greenhouses’ model through four generations of greenhouse entrepreneurs. As the business continues to expand and grow, our team looks forward to instilling the values of “striving for customer satisfaction through quality and service” and knowing that “Our customer’s success is our success”, to future generations of the Andy Mast Greenhouses family.