On December 7th 1968, Ken and Margaret Dean first opened the doors to Dean’s Garden Centre in York and over the last 50 years this family run business has gone from strength to strength.
From its humble beginnings of a 60ft x 14ft greenhouse and prefab building, the business has extended over the years to include a coffee shop and nursery site in 1991 and the purchase of a second garden centre at Scarborough in 1986.
The site now covers more than 4 acres, with the most recent expansion in 2017 of a new, larger coffee shop.
Dean’s has remained a family enterprise and, when Ken and Margaret took well-earned retirement in 1993, the business was taken over by their three children Richard, Helen and Sarah who still run the business today. Between the three Partners, they have eight children, four of whom currently work within the business.
During the last 50 years, gardening has remained at the centre of the business, with Dean’s growing a large range of bedding plants, perennials, vegetable plants, cyclamen and bowls of bulbs at their nursery site just a short distance away from the garden centre.
Over 120 staff are employed between the two garden centres at York and Scarborough and the nursery. Of these, more than 35 members of staff have worked for the company for 10 years or more, establishing itself as a big local employer while staying true to its roots.
For a number of years, Dean’s Garden Centre has supported charities in many different ways. Since 2002, a charity of the year has been nominated annually and this alone has raised over £265,000 to date. The charity of the year for 2018 is Macmillan Cancer Support.
A 50th Anniversary Charity Day was held on Thursday 6th December, which included a cake stall, golden raffle, tombola and book stall and a fantastic amount of £1253.73 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Then on Friday 7th December they had a 50th Anniversary Celebration Day with special offers and a golden envelope giveaway, where each customer that visited the Garden Centre selected a golden envelope and had a 50-50 chance of winning a prize worth from 50p to £50!
