Client news: Aylsham business blooms
in News
In 1987 two members of the Purdy family set up a roadside stall selling plants and vegetables grown on their family land just outside Aylsham.
Twenty seven years later, Woodgate Nursery in Aylsham employs 25 people (full and part-time), sells an impressive array of plants including over 700 perennial plants, shrubs, vegetable plants, ferns, roses, hedging and bog plants.
The Nursery also boasts the delightful Purdy’s Tea Room which sells a variety of coffee and cake, and serves over 80 light lunches every day.
The roots of the business date back to 1843 when the Purdy family first moved on to their five-acre estate. Peter’s great, great, great grandfather was friends with the last great English landscape gardener Humphrey Repton, and planted all the surrounding trees around Woodgate Nursery in 1860.
After studying at agricultural college in Rittle, Peter started his working life on a farm just outside Aylsham. Today Peter owns, manages and still has a firm, hands-on role at the Nursery from pricing and ordering down to watering the plants, which he can be found doing at 5am on summer mornings to ensure the plants do not suffer from the heat.
The business’s turnover has risen by 107% in the past five years – showing a 12% rise in the last year alone – and Peter believes the recession and the appointment of Stuart Morton five years ago has assisted in the growing popularity of Woodgate Nursery.
“During the recession people tended to stay at home and spend their disposable income on home improvements, such as the garden,” says Peter Purdy.
“Stuart has also played a pivotal role in identifying areas for improvement and expansion via a thorough business plan. Since Stuart’s arrival the business has seen a new shop as well as Purdy’s Tea Room, and later a Tea Room expansion.”
Like so many independent, local businesses, Peter is determined to preserve the warm, family business feel that customers receive when visiting Woodgate Nursery as well as offer the best possible range of plants.
Peter continues: “When we first started growing plants we never could envisage that we would end up where we are today. Woodgate Nursery may have been started by the Purdy family, but the secret to our success is very much down to the hard work of staff and our very loyal customers” Open seven days a week
9am to 5pm April to September
9am – 4pm October to March
Tel: 01263 731510
