British gardening company
Dobbies Garden Centres Limited
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Dobbies_Logo_new.png/220px-Dobbies_Logo_new.png) |
Formerly
| - Dobbie & Co. Limited (1920?1997)
- Dobbies Garden Centres plc (1997?2011)
[1]
|
---|
Company type
| Private
|
---|
Industry
| Gardening
|
---|
Founded
| 1865
|
---|
Founder
| James Dobbie
|
---|
Headquarters
| Lasswade
, Scotland, UK
|
---|
Area served
| United Kingdom
|
---|
Key people
| David Robinson (CEO)
|
---|
Owners
| Ares Management
|
---|
Number of employees
| 950
|
---|
Website
| dobbies
.com
|
---|
Dobbies Garden Centres Limited
(styled as
dobbies
) is a British chain of
garden centres
based in
Lasswade
, Scotland.
[2]
It is the biggest garden centre operator in the
United Kingdom
, operating over 77 stores, some of which it acquired from the previous biggest garden centre chain,
Wyevale
.
[3]
[4]
History
[
edit
]
Dobbies Garden Centre, Aberdeen
The business was founded in 1865 by James Dobbie, who created a seeds business named Dobbie & Co. in
Renfrew
, Scotland. After being awarded the
Royal Warrant
for Gardeners and Nurserymen to the Royal Household, the company expanded into a seed catalogue business, where it built up a customer base of 50,000 over the following century.
[5]
[6]
In 1969 the company expanded out of its Scottish base into England, and was floated on
AIM
in 1987. Up until 1984 Dobbies continued to operate principally as a seed merchant. It was then bought out by David Barnes, managing director of Waterers. Between 1984 and 1989 Dobbies opened five new garden centres in Scotland.
[7]
The company was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1997 and this led to Dobbies expanding their garden centre operations further South into England.
[8]
Acquisition by Tesco
[
edit
]
Tesco
announced its intention to purchase Dobbies Garden Centres for £155.6 million on 8 June 2007.
[9]
The deal was confirmed as successful by the board of directors of Tesco on 17 August 2007 when the board announced that they had received 53.1% of shares (or 5,410,457 shares), which confirmed conditions set out in the offer made on 20 June 2007. Although the deal had been confirmed by Tesco the offer remained open to Dobbies shareholders until 20 August 2007.
[10]
Tesco raised its holding to 65% in September that year,
[11]
although
Sir Tom Hunter
took the company to court in May 2008 in an attempt to avoid further shares in Dobbies being issued, as it would reduce his holding. The legal challenge was unsuccessful,
[12]
and on 5 June 2008 Tesco announced that it would be compulsorily acquiring the remainder of the shares in Dobbies Garden Centres PLC.
[13]
Example of covered plant area
On 10 May 2009, Dobbies announced it had made £1 million sales of its Grow Your Own range in that year to date. Grow Your Own allows many of Dobbies' 10 million-strong customer base to grow salad, vegetables and fruits from home with more than 100,000 tomato plants sold in the previous two months alone. For the year to early 2009, turnover was £97 million.
[14]
In 2010, Dobbies opened their first outlet in
Northern Ireland
,
[15]
and the store, near
Lisburn
, opened in September 2010.
Sell off from Tesco
[
edit
]
On 17 June 2016, Tesco sold the company on to a group of investors led by Midlothian Capital Partners and Hattington Capital for £217m.
[16]
[17]
Recent years
[
edit
]
Dobbies Garden Centre, Lasswade
Dobbies now operates 77 garden centres and
restaurants
across the UK, as well as several large tourist attractions including
Anker Wood
, in
Atherstone
.
[18]
In May 2019, Dobbies bought 37 stores from Wyevale Garden Centres, doubling its reach and becoming the biggest garden centre in the UK.
[19]
[20]
In February 2020, Dobbies closed its Dalgety Bay Store in
Fife
, stating its small size and proximity to a larger store in
Dunfermline
as reasons for the decision.
[21]
[22]
Dobbies announced in June 2020 that it would open a flagship store near
Tewkesbury
at the planned
Designer Village Cotswold
. The store is scheduled to open in 2022 and will become the largest store in the
South West
and the fourth largest in the UK.
[23]
Following its temporary closure during the
COVID-19 pandemic
, Dobbies announced a partnership with
Sainsbury's
to supply its food halls with Sainsbury's branded products.
[24]
The range will contain over 3,000 products including chilled, frozen, ambient and household products. Dobbies'
Edinburgh
store was the first to offer the full range at the end of July with other stores following throughout 2020.
[25]
However, in 2022 certain stores trialled a
Waitrose
branded food hall.
In October 2023, the company opened their largest store in
Antrim
in
Northern Ireland
, costing over £10 million to construct.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"DOBBIES GARDEN CENTRES LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK"
.
Companies House
. 18 February 1920
. Retrieved
10 February
2024
.
- ^
"DOBBIES GARDEN CENTRES LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)"
.
beta.companieshouse.gov.uk
.
- ^
"Locate store"
.
dobbies.com
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
- ^
Briggs, Fiona.
"UK's largest garden centre chain, Dobbies, launches partnership with SmartPlant"
.
Retail Times
. Retrieved
2 January
2021
.
- ^
"Scottish garden centre chain buys two branches from Dobbies"
.
The Scotsman
.
- ^
Pennie, Gavin (2 December 2009).
"Dobbies to open new base in Renfrew"
.
dailyrecord
.
- ^
Insider, Business (15 April 2010).
"James Barnes Profile - People come to Dobbies to be inspired"
.
businessInsider
.
- ^
"Dobbies Garden Centres"
.
Garden Action
. Retrieved
18 June
2016
.
- ^
Jordan, Dearbail (8 June 2007).
"Tesco swoops on Dobbies Garden Centres"
.
The Times
. London
. Retrieved
8 June
2007
.
- ^
"Offer Declared Unconditional in all Respects"
. Dobbies. 17 August 2007. p. 1. Archived from
the original
on 26 August 2007
. Retrieved
19 August
2007
.
- ^
"Tesco sees UK sales growth slow"
.
BBC News
. 2 October 2007
. Retrieved
6 January
2010
.
- ^
"Tesco buys Hunter's Dobbies stake"
.
BBC News
. 21 May 2008
. Retrieved
13 April
2016
.
- ^
"Compulsory acquisition of outstanding Dobbies Shares"
. Dobbies. Archived from
the original
on 28 March 2010.
- ^
"It's The Good Life for Dobbies as sales rise"
.
Evening Times
. 11 May 2009
. Retrieved
18 June
2016
.
- ^
Lisburn City Council Press Release 20 May 2010: "New Dobbies Garden World for Lisburn"
Archived
1 October 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Tesco sells Dobbies Garden Centres for £217m"
. BBC. 17 June 2016
. Retrieved
18 June
2016
.
- ^
Wood, Zoe; Kollewe, Julia (17 June 2016).
"Tesco again scales back 24-hour trading, with 2,000 jobs put at risk"
.
The Guardian
. Guardian News and Media
. Retrieved
18 June
2016
.
- ^
"Locate store"
.
dobbies.com
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
- ^
"Store - Dobbies | Dobbies Garden Centres"
.
The Times
.
- ^
Bowden2019-04-10T11:11:00, Grace.
"Dobbies snaps up 31 garden centres from rival Wyevale"
.
Retail Week
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
Henderson, Neil.
"Fife garden centre closure leaves 27 jobs at risk"
.
The Courier
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
- ^
"Inspiring Gardeners since 1865 - Dobbies Garden Centres"
.
hub.dobbies.com
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
- ^
Flowers, Sophie; King, Jasper (1 June 2020).
"New flagship Dobbies Garden Centre to open off M5 north of Bristol"
.
BristolLive
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
- ^
"Dobbies & Sainsbury's launch grocery partnership - Retail Gazette"
.
retailgazette.co.uk
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
- ^
Stein, Findlay (20 July 2020).
"Dobbies leads Sainsbury's up the garden centre path"
.
Scottish Local Retailer Magazine
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
External links
[
edit
]