Two hundred years of Dandy's: from Chester market stall to nationwide

In 1826, a man named James Dandy moved his family from Tarleton to Chester and set up a stall in Market Hall Square, selling fruit and vegetables grown on the family farm. Two centuries later, the business that bears his name is celebrating its 200th year, and it is still very much a family affair.

Dandy's has never been afraid to move with the times. When Chester's new indoor Market Hall opened in 1863, the family's stall was the very first to move inside, and the business went on to become a leading supplier of locally grown produce to the city's top hotels.

Today the company is run by Adam Dandy, James's fifth-generation grandson, together with his wife Clare and son Lewis, with daughter Lauren expected to join in the future. Adam had once considered a career in policing, but joined the firm full-time as a teenager, juggling long shifts before deciding to focus entirely on the family business. In 2007 he bought out his parents and stepped up as the fifth-generation owner.

Under his leadership, Dandy's reinvented itself as one of the UK's leading suppliers of topsoil, compost, turf, gravel and landscaping materials. It was an early adopter of e-commerce, too: in 2000, Dandy's became the first company in the UK to sell landscape supplies online. A key moment came when the business pioneered nationwide tonne-bag deliveries of topsoil, a move that rapidly increased demand from gardeners across the country.

The growth has been considerable. Staff numbers have doubled to keep pace with online sales, and in September 2025 the company celebrated more than 150,000 orders placed since moving its website to Shopify. Its own-brand soils, including Lawnmix, Bordermix and VegeGrow, are well known among keen gardeners, and as it marks its bicentenary the company has been inviting landscape suppliers and builders' merchants across the UK to stock them.

Sustainability is part of the modern Dandy's story as well, with the company offering a fully peat-free product range, an approach that would surely have pleased a family who started out selling produce from their own land.

It is a remarkable arc for a business that began with a single market stall: two hundred years, five generations and a journey from Chester's Market Hall Square to gardens the length of the country, with the family name still firmly over the door.

Dandy's delivers nationwide from its Chester base. Browse the range at dandys.com.