By Partner Content on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
From friendship to a £25M business
“We’ve been friends for years, so we’re really close,” shares Dave Wilson, co-founder of Gardener’s Dream. What started as a shared passion for gardening amongst three friends has blossomed into one of the UK’s leading online plant retailers. Their story is just one of many captivating entrepreneurial journeys featured in “Rising Stars by Amazon Ads“, an innovative docu-series that’s capturing the real stories behind Europe’s growing brands.
Think “Chef’s Table” meets “Dragons’ Den,” but with real entrepreneurs who aren’t just pitching dreams – they’re living them. After winning hearts (and multiple awards) across five seasons in China and successful runs in Europe and the USA, Rising Stars is back in the UK for a new season, bringing with it a fresh perspective on what it means to build a business in the digital age.
For Gardener’s Dream, this adventure has been rooted in recognising the potential of online sales. “Physical garden centre stores typically stuck to localised sales,” Craig Wilson, another co-founder, explains. “The three of us saw that opportunity.” Their intuition proved correct, with the company now boasting a £25