How it all began...
Our first store, Shepherd’s Farm Shop, opened in 2007 near Newent in Gloucestershire. It was Susie’s dream come true, a shop of her own selling great local food and drink, including our homegrown strawberries and apples. Every year since opening the store has been highly acclaimed for it’s promotion of local produce, store cleanliness, and dedication and knowledge of staff. In the past few years, and with the addition of little Ralph to the Keenan family, Susie’s husband Euan has become more involved in the business, and our partner Fran has also joined us on our journey. We got to know Blue Diamond, particularly MD Alan Roper, when they bought the Garden Centre where Shepherd’s is located in December 2007 (now called Three Shires Garden Centre).
We all hit it off right away, with aspirations and values in common, along with ideas for further great food stores alongside Blue Diamond Garden Centres, sticking to our philosophy of sourcing as locally as possible and carefully selecting every product we sell.
Blue Diamond Group, based in Guernsey, began in 1904 exporting Channel Islands produce, particularly tomatoes. The company expanded into other areas including importation of fertiliser, supplying packaging and acquiring glasshouses for tomato and flower production. After the Second World War the company evolved further adding garden retailing to its portfolio. Blue Diamond currently operates ten garden centres on the UK Mainland and on the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey. Now Blue Diamond has made its debut into food retailing through their partnership with Susie and Euan. The first Brown and Green store opened in the shopping village at Trentham Estate, near Stoke on Trent in 2010, and was followed by a store within Derby Garden Centre, at Little Eaton, earlier in 2011.
Euan and Susie, along with business partner Fran Jupp, also still operate the original store, Shepherd’s Farm Shop in Gloucestershire, which is based at Three Shires Garden Centre. Also in Gloucestershire Euan is involved in growing strawberries in our own glasshouse, and organic apples and pears in recently planted orchards.
