Achille Agway is a family tradition

For nearly 60 years, Achille Agway has taken care of living, growing things – from lawns to chickens, from cows to kittens and from marigolds to orchids. 

“It is very rewarding, and it can be very intense,” said Julia Traffie, who has been at the Peterborough store since 1988. “We have customers who need help with all kinds of things; we never know who will walk in the door. It might be their plants, their lawn, but sometimes it’s their animals — their farm animals, their pets. We’ve all had a lot of training, so we’re prepared for whatever the customer needs. Helping out with a sick animal is just part of what we do.”

Achille Agway is known in the region for its plant nursery, landscaping supplies such as mulch and gravel, and pet products, but the stores also carry medicine and equipment for larger animals such as cows, sheep and horses, as well as lawn, gardening and farming supplies. 

“We are really the only place around here that still carries a lot of items specifically for farmers,” Traffie said. 

The Achille Agway chain was founded by George Achille and his wife Janet,  who moved to Peterborough in 1957 with their infant son, George Jr. Achille started out as a successful poultry farmer, and began to sell poultry grain as a side business. The success of that business led to opening the first Achille Agway store at the current location on Route 202 in Peterborough in 1965, followed by the Keene store in 1981.

After gradating from the University of New Hampshire with degrees in business and plant and animal science, George Achille Jr.  joined his father in running the family business, along with his sister, Judy Winters. The family’s third store, Hillsborough, opened in 1986, followed by the Milford store in 1988. The Walpole location opened in 1996, and Brattleboro in 1999. 

“We planned it, my dad planned it, so that all our stores are about 20 miles apart,” George Jr. said. “Brattleboro is the last one. Each store meets the needs of the customers in that specific area; we shift to what people need, how it’s changed over time. Now there aren’t people planting big crops, but there a lot more people gardening. Walpole and Hillsborough are still more agricultural.”

The family jokes that each new store was the pet project of one family member. 

“We’ve all always worked in the business. Both our parents – my mom was just as involved as my dad,” said Winters. “All our kids worked here – cousins, nieces and nephews. We’re in the third generation now. People always say we never take vacation, but we’re always together. It doesn’t seem like work. It’s what our family does.  We’ve probably had a total of 30 family members working here over the years.” 

Achille was recognized nationally by the Agway Corporation for his leadership and innovations in the industry. The family was devastated by his death in 2003, followed by the death of Janet Achille just one year later. The family carried on, continuing and building in the senior Achille’s vision.

“We were unloading Christmas trees the day our father died,” George Jr. recalled. “All of us, together. Both our parents were very hard workers, great role models. They built this business form the ground up.” 

“When you grow up in the business, you just go where you’re needed,” Winters said. “Mom ran the poultry farm all by herself once it was automated. She would be out here sewing belts, keeping everything going. Not everyone knows she was just as involved as Dad! They were both incredibly hard workers.” 

The Achille Agway stores have weathered many ups and downs over the years, along with the local community.

“We’ve stayed open, anything that’s happened, we’ve been here for our customers. We stayed open during the ice storm in 2008; we sold generators when people in some of the towns has no power for three weeks. We never closed for one day for COVID, because people have to take care of their plants, their animals. The animals have to eat,” George Jr. said. 

The Peterborough store has a loyal core of staff. Along with George Jr., Winters  and Traffie, Dana Coe has worked at the store for 45 years; her brother and sister worked at the store as well.   

“We have the second-generation  employees working in the store now, which is pretty special,” Coe said. “This business isn’t just, ‘Oh, the parking lot is busy in May and it’s easy money!’ It’s unloading grain trucks at 4 a.m.; it’s 24/7. Everyone works really hard.” 

George Achille Jr. says the biggest challenge currently facing the store is finding reliable help, which is common to all local businesses.  The stores also competes with online retailers, particularly for pet supplies.

“Peterborough is very heavy on gardening and landscaping. We get a lot of new gardeners with questions about how to get started. The pet section has expanded over the years. There used to be one kind of dog food. Now it’s a whole section and so many options,” Traffie said. “We just evolve the meet people’s needs.” 

On Nov. 15, Blue Seal Stores announced it had acquired the Achille Agway chain. Blue Seal is part of Kent Nutrition, an Iowa company that specializes in animal feed. Blue Seal has 11 stores in New Hampshire. The Achille family and their team, as well as the staff at the other stores,  will continue to run the Achille Agway stores and serve their local communities. 

The Achille Agway chain is the largest vendor of grain and feed in New Hampshire.

“We could not have found a better company to transition to than Blue Seal,” George Achille Jr.  said. “We had a lot of offers over the years, but this was the absolutely the best fit we could have found. They’ve been doing the same type of things we have for many years. They have the same core values. They offer the same great customer service. They take care of their employees, and they are taking care of our people here.  We’re made sure everybody would be able to stay.”

Winters wants customers to know that Achille Agway will stay the same for the foreseeable future.

“People are afraid we will change with the sale, but we want to people to know we tried to find the best fit  we possibly could for the community, to make sure we  still meet their needs.” she said.

George Jr. said he was gratified to be asked to stay on after the sale.

“They told me,  ‘George, just keep the train on the track.’ That’s what we’re going to do. We’re still here for our customers,” he said.