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. 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. The company was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1997 and this led to Dobbies expanding their garden centre operations further South into England.
Acquisition by Tesco
announced its intention to purchase Dobbies Garden Centres for £155.6 million on 8 June 2007. 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, 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. Tesco raised its holding to 65% in September that year, 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, and on 5 June 2008 Tesco announced that it would be compulsorily acquiring the remainder of the shares in Dobbies Garden Centres PLC.
Recent years
Dobbies now operates 69 garden centres and restaurants across the UK, as well as several large tourist attractions including Anker Wood, in Atherstone. 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. In 2010, Dobbies opened their first outlet in Northern Ireland, and the store, near Lisburn, opened in September 2010. In May 2019 Dobbies bought 37 stores from Wyevale Garden Centres, doubling its reach and becoming the biggest garden centre in the UK.
Sell off from Tesco
On 17 June 2016, Tesco sold the company on to a group of investors led by Midlothian Capital Partners and Hattington Capital for £217m.
