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 first worked at Otter when I was still at Coombe Dean School, on the tills on Saturdays. After my A Levels I had planned to be a nurse, but Otter offered me a role as trainee assistant manager. I was trained across the whole retail site over the next 18 months.
After I had my second child, I came back part-time as visual merchandiser – I’d always enjoyed laying out displays.
I’m also the Christmas team leader which involves planning, sorting equipment, checking stock coming in, organising the displays and the animations. We hardly ever forget about Christmas here, there’s always something going on in the background!
There have been massive changes. When I started it was a lot smaller. Otter had just taken over the site from Martins Garden Centre.
The entrance and tills were in a different place, the main greenhouse was just a growing greenhouse, there were no ramps – and the coffee shop was tiny. The business has expanded every year.
The clothing department when I started was just wax jackets, fleeces, wellies – country wear. Now we have high street brands like Joe Browns, White Stuff, Sea Salt, which our customers really like.
I got to know Jacqui well, as she used to come down to Plymouth to help set up Christmas. During term time she had to leave early to collect the children from school, but in the holidays she’d bring Sabine and Aaron with her.
I remember Sabine scooting around on roller skates down the ramps, and both of them would go into the pet department we had back then and rearrange straw in the rabbit hutches. It’s been nice to watch the children grow up and become part of the business.
Santa used to arrive by helicopter to start Christmas off. It was amazing. The car park was much smaller and the roads would be jammed – people would abandon their cars and come running down to see Santa land. He’d give out presents to the children.
I also loved the Otter Awards; it was a lovely event when the family and managers cooked and served the teams.
We had a big water leak in the greenhouse one year. Everyone had to get busy pushing the water out using brooms. We had quite a laugh doing that!
I have lots of favourite moments!
I love it when everyone pulls together when there’s a huge delivery, for example. There’s always lots of banter.
I do remember the Beast from the East, when we had to get out the snow scrapers. Despite the weather forecast customers were still coming in for their coffees, the snow came in thick and fast and there were a lot of burnt-out clutches when they tried to leave.
What do you enjoy most about working at Otter?
The variety. I’ve been here for 28 years, and I just don’t notice the time going.
We’re always planning for the next season. And it’s a lovely place to work. We have lots of regular customers who we get to know.
And there are lots of staff who have been here a long time. We work really well as a team.
A huge thank you goes out to Kate for sharing her memories and funny moments with us!
Her 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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