Well positioned for the future

The knack of discerning market trends early and creating flexible and practical solutions to satisfy them is a recurring theme in the eventful history of garden centre operator Dehner. The foundation for success was laid by Georg Weber on 1 August 1947, when together with his wife Albertine Dehner he set up and ran the company Dehner & Co. Samenzucht, a seed wholesale business.
Dehner now employs around 5 500 people and is Europe's biggest garden centre operator with 125 branches in Germany and Austria. The first centre was opened in Georg Weber's home city of Augsburg back in 1949. This store at Annastraße 1 marked the start of the company's history and paved the way for it to become the leading garden centre chain in Germany.

From the outset the company had a knack of spotting trends early on and creating flexible and practical solutions to cater to these. In the 1960s, for example, when living standards in Germany were rising and kitchen gardens were being turned increasingly into blooming ornamental gardens, Dehner was quick to extend its range to include plants and shrubs. 
Georg Weber also realised at an early stage that shops in city centres were too small to accommodate the growing customer demands of hobby gardeners. He therefore took the visionary step of building large, modern garden centres offering new product categories such as boutique articles, ceramics, garden furniture and Christmas decorations in addition to seeds, plants, garden tools and plant care products. 
In the 1980s and 1990s, Dehner stole a march on many retailers with the development of private labels, which covered a growing number of product categories and were characterised by reliable quality at low prices. The pet supplies segment was expanded during this period also, based on the knowledge that a large number of garden owners also had pets such as cats and dogs. In 2010 the company even created a dedicated business, Dehner Zoo, with its own logo. With the introduction of the pagoda style of building, Dehner's outlets acquired the unmistakable appearance that identifies them immediately as Dehner garden centres. 

1986 was a turning point in the company's history with the death in Rain on 17 October of company founder Georg Weber, who was well respected in the region not only as an entrepreneur but also for his contribution to the cultural and social scene. He was succeeded by his son Albert Weber and the latter's brother-in-law Georg…