Otter Garden Centre, a family-run business established by Malcolm and Marilyn White in 1964, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

The Centre is one of the largest employers in the area and offers a wide range of gardening products, including home-grown plants, furniture, garden buildings, and delicious food served at its renowned coffee shop.

Malcolm and Marilyn began their business by taking a bank loan to purchase a field and a second-hand mobile home. They started growing lettuce, cabbage and carrots to sell for local markets and later added simple greenhouses to their range of plants, compost, and vegetables.

The business continued to thrive with the help of Marilyn's father, Russ, who believed that more customers would be interested in buying greenhouses if Otter could build them. As they grew more plants than they could sell from one site, they decided to purchase additional sites that became part of the family business.

The first site was established in Torbay in 1984, followed by sites in Plymouth, Lymington, and Wincanton. In 2014, they sold their first centre in Torbay and replaced it with a newly purchased one in Lymington. In 2019, they opened their sixth and seventh branches in Taunton, expanding their business even further.

Malcolm, Marilyn, and their daughters Jacqui and Cathy have been providing excellent and innovative service to this area for many years. In 2011, Jacqui, who had started her career in Ottery, took over as the Managing Director of their business. They continued their quest towards a greener future by installing solar panels and EV charging points for customers. They also replaced their old oil and gas boilers with a biomass system at their sites. In 2021, they doubled the peat-free composts available at their garden centres.

One of the key reasons behind their success is their recognition that plants are the heart and soul of their centres. They have set a target to grow 80 per cent of their plants within three on-site nurseries by 2023, guaranteeing their topmost quality and freshness. The Centre's first propagation was the popular Camelia Claire Hannah, which is now exclusively cultivated and traded by Otter Garden Centre.

The Otter Garden Centre has a strong connection with the Ottery St Mary Friends of Phyllis Baxter group. Jacqui has been actively sponsoring numerous events that the members organise individually or as a team. The Centre supported the first Ottery King & Queen of the Mountain event at Chineway Hill in 2017, created after the success of the Tour of Britain coming to Ottery twice, the Skoda Mountain climb and the Three Hills Championship – Chineway, Haytor, Widecombe- in 2019. The success of those cycling events played an essential role in the present achievements of the Otter Trail Group. It demonstrated this area's draw for cyclists from all over the country and the need for the Feniton to Sidmouth cycle path.

Due to the pandemic in 2020, the traditional Christmas Lunch for those who were alone could not be held at a local pub as in previous years. At the pub, guests usually received a sycamore or a poinsettia from the Centre along with their free meal. However, Jacqui made a generous offer to Glyn and Gay Dobson, who were the organisers of the event. As a result, a group of volunteers was able to deliver a free Christmas dinner that was prepared by the Centre's restaurant staff. This arrangement has continued every Christmas Day since.

In this editorial, I can only discuss the events in which I participated as a councillor or as a member of the Ottery St Mary Friends of Phyllis Baxter group. However, I am aware that many organisations hosting events in Ottery have received the generosity of the Otter Garden Centre and would like to join us in wishing Marilyn, Malcolm, Jacqui, Cathy, and their team many more years of successful business—a big thank you to them for their support.