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11
Jun 2021
Whixley plant nursery celebrates 100 years of business
Family-run horticultural nursery Johnsons of Whixley is celebrating 100 years of business this month.
The company is one of the UK's largest plant suppliers, and has sold an estimated total of 220 million plants since it was founded.
It was founded in 1921 by war veteran Eric Johnson; he began with a small piece of land yielding two dozen fruit trees and grew the company to sell fruit, vegetables and flowers.
When the Second World War started, most of his small team of staff joined the war effort. He was given a commission with the Home Guard in a platoon of 60, covering Wetherby to Green Hammerton.
By the end of the war he was running the well-established ER Johnson Nurseries Whixley, as it was formerly known, and was able to buy seven acres of land to expand the company.
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In 1964 the company was bought by John Richardson, who maintained it as a family-owned business. At this time the company was producing about 150,000 plants annually.
John is now 83 and is still chair of the business, with 11 members of the Richardson family also having various roles.
John said;
Today the company owns over 200 acres of land and sells five to six million plants every year.
The business has supplied plants for ambitious projects such as HS1 and the athletes' village at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
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