As we celebrate this milestone, we invite you to join us in reminiscing with our Otter teams as they share their cherished memories, reflections, and emotions from their time at Otter Garden Centres.
I’m from Portsmouth originally, and I joined the Navy when I was 16. I left in March 2000 and joined Otter as a stop gap to tide me over, I thought for around a few months.
I thoroughly enjoyed the work and I’m still here over 24 years later!
I started in the yard, with pots, compost, fencing, and forklift driving. When the Water Garden Manager left in 2001, I went into the department and really enjoyed it. Now I’m a buyer and I manage all pond equipment, plants and fish together with Jim at Ottery, and water features for all seven sites. I also help out when I can with IT at Plymouth when OSM IT need help.
The size of the branch, definitely. When I started there was only space for two rows of cars in the car park. There were around 30 staff, now there’s over 100.
There was only 5 men working throughout the garden centre, which did stretch us at times.
When I first arrived, I didn’t intend to stay at Otter for long, but the people I’ve worked with over the years have been great. I was used to plenty of banter when I was in the Navy, it’s what keeps you together & that has continued over the years, in fact, an old Navy friend of mine said he was quite jealous of me working in a garden centre!
I love everything about the work. I’m self-taught and I have my own pond, so I really enjoy giving customers advice. The Water Garden department is a niche part of the garden centre, so I get to know some of the regular customers and all of the suppliers. Many of the suppliers are similar to Otter, as they’re family businesses.
Ponds are very personal things – it can sometimes can take a bit of effort to persuade customers to buy the right equipment for their ponds, but there’s a real satisfaction when they come back to say thank you for the advice.
Years ago, probably over 20, the back of the car park was our compost & aggregate storage area, about 3 to 4 meters lower than the car park. A tyre fitter came in to repair a blown tyre on the forklift. He parked his van halfway up the car park and was walking up to the shop.
Luckily for him, one of my colleagues noticed his van rolling backwards towards the drop, he shouted out to him, he turned & ran for his life chasing his works van.
He just managed, by only a few feet, to get in the van & grab the handbrake. He was a bit shaken up, his first comment was “I never use the “expletive” handbrake”!!!…we took him to the coffee shop and gave him a coffee!
His main concern about the whole incident was my colleague who noticed the van rolling backwards, was the nephew of the tyre fitter’s boss!!
A few beers were owed for his silence!!!!
A huge thank you goes out to Steve for sharing his memories with us!
His stories truly bring the spirit of Otter Garden Centres to life!
Keep an eye out for more heartwarming tales from our amazing team as we continue our 60th Anniversary celebrations!
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