Remarkable family business clocks up 75 years

Four generations of a Cold Overton farming family have helped develop Gates Garden Centre into a destination retail experience.

The adjacent working farm, which boasts 600 acres of land, continues to supply the farm shop and restaurant with meat and vegetables and recent extensions have added a warehouse and a unit for Lakeland homeware.

Development of the site has accelerated over recent years and the business now employs more than 200 people.

Staff were celebrating last month when Gates was voted by the public as Rutland and Melton’s top independent business in a competition organised by local MP, Alicia Kearns.

General manager, Clare Crowther, told the Melton Times: “In the last five years we’ve gone from being in the top 60 biggest garden centres in the UK to now being the ninth largest.

“Our aim is to break into that top five because we have room to expand further.

“We still get visitors asking us what chain we are part of and they are often surprised to hear we are family-owned.”

The Gates family chose the beautiful, windy hilltop to create a small market garden in the former walled garden of Cold

Overton Hall back in 1948.

Founders Fred and Ivy Gates are the grandparents of Nigel Gates, and great grandparents of Jack Gates, the current family members involved in the flourishing business.

“You will often see Nigel in the kitchen or Jack helping to load the lorries,” said Clare.

“The family love to get involved and they also work on the tills when they are needed.

“We have got over 200 people working here but we are like a big family. Staff will muck in with the deliveries and anywhere where we need them.”

To celebrate their special milestone, the business is organising a range of events, including vintage afternoon teas, special offers and competitions, the launch of a new loyalty club app and a traditional family fun fair on the weekend of August 5 and 6.

The last 20 years has seen a rapid expansion of the site, beginning with the entrance and tills area in 2004.

More recent developments have seen the introduction of bigger home and lifestyle shopping areas and home furnishings.

A large restaurant was added as well to complement the original cafe at the centre.

Despite all the other attractions, plants and flowers remain a big draw for customers.

Marketing manager, Claire Parker, said: “We are still primarily a garden centre.

“Our staff have great horticultural knowledge and they are always available to help customers.”

It also helps to have somewhere to enjoy refreshments and browse shops as well.

She added: “We have quite a few coaches visit us now because we are becoming a destination experience.

“People can come for breakfast or lunch, browse the shops and the plants and then have afternoon tea as well if they wish.

“We have an interesting business model in that we don’t have a huge expenditure in marketing. We rely on customers spreading the word about what we do and it clearly works.”

In recent years, the Gates family have been keen to introduce sustainable features into the working of the site.

Water is collected from the roof to work the toilets, there are solar panels on the roof and they also use heat pumps.

The family has also planted seven miles of hedgerows on their farmland to support wildlife habitats.

They supply beef and lamb from animals reared there for the farmshop and restaurants.

The slaughter house at nearby Pickwell is used so the ‘food miles’ rating is very low.

Probably the biggest challenge for the business over the last 75 years was the Covid pandemic which led to the garden centre being closed for long periods in 2020 and 2021.

Clare Crowther explained: “When the pandemic happened and lockdown started we didn’t know what we were going to do.

“We moved quickly into click and collect, though, and made a lot more deliveries than normal.

“We had to use staff in different areas of the business and everyone mucked in.

“It was important to keep everyone safe after we reopened and in fact we’ve only just taken the screens around the tills down recently.”

The first thing visitors notice at the site is the sharp incline on the car park, a result of the hilltop location of the site.

This doesn’t cause a major problem, though, and Claire Parker commented: “If any customers have issues with the slope we have a whole team ready to help them if required.”

When the Gates family started the business back in the late 1940s they could never have imagined the expansion which has taken place.

There are no plans to sell up or become part of a large chain because family members enjoy playing such a pivotal role in its operations.

Winning the recent honour for independent businesses will help introduce the centre to more potential customers.

There were 700 nominations submitted across 15 categories, and more than 19,000 residents voted.

Claire Parker added: “It was great to win the award because it shows that we do have a following and that we are a very well respected independent business.”

Click HERE to find out more about Gates Garden Centre.