Terry Dicken Business Park
The Terry Dicken Business Park is home to over 100 businesses. Offering purpose built offices, industrial units and storage space of various sizes to rent on and around the Stokesley business park site.
Most local folk will be familiar with the home improvement company, Terry Dicken. But do you know how the Terry Dicken Business Park came about? Let’s hear all about it from owners, Mark and Sue Dicken.
Humble beginnings in 1986
Mark;
“The successful Dickens Hypermarket on Portrack Lane was operated by my father Terry and his brothers. Terry retired from there in 1978 and decided to open a DIY shop in Stokesley High Street which he called Stokesley Hardware. He then bought the Old Station Yard on Station Road in Stokesley. That land was split up and sold individually. Wanting to enable other people to set up small businesses, in 1986 he purchased the former Ministry of Defence site on Station Road. Initially planning to separate and sell off to individual businesses, Terry later decided to support the growth of the area by renting the land and buildings out.
My brother Paul was selling and installing double glazing at Terry Dicken with Dad during the early days of the estate. In the early 1990’s he left the family business to pursue a career in social work. By then, I was working alongside Dad helping him manage both businesses.”
When Terry took a back seat in 2002, Mark took over. Although Terry was still, at heart, very much a part of the businesses until his passing in 2012.
Mark explains more about the parks’ growth.
What’s in a name?
“Over the years we bought more land to build on and also purchased established properties as the Stokesley business park developed. The site was originally named Terry Dicken Industrial Estate. We’re proud that we still have a number of tenants that have been with us since the early days. These include Dallas Keith, Stokesley Architectural Joinery, Woodrose Shepherd Huts, Hansell Composites/Fibre-Lyte, Mulberry Blinds and Stokesley Lawnmowers. Nowadays, more diverse types of business come to us looking for premises. Therefore we introduced the Terry Dicken Business Park as way of encompassing all requirements.”
Space to suit all organisations
Mark;
“Today we have all sorts of tenants here. It makes it easy to run a business as you don’t have to look far for a supplier. Our industrial spaces range from small to large units and we have single starter offices right up to full office buildings. Having that flexibility allows a tenant to grow or reduce in size without having to leave the business park.”
Sue;
“You wouldn’t expect to find things like a wool shop, podiatrist or hair salon on a business park, but it works! We’re always learning about new types of tenant. The Feature Friday website blog helps us to keep up to date with what our tenant base is doing. Some tenants start their tenancy doing a particular thing and end up adding something completely different that compliments what they already do.”
With a dedicated website, active social media channels and the Feature Friday blog focussing on the park’s tenants, there are many benefits to being part of this bustling business community. One of the biggest being how Mark & Sue take time to encourage tenants to work with each other.
Discovering more
Mark;
“A number of years ago the council ran several events giving local companies the opportunity to visit large employers based on the wider Stokesley Business Park. It was really interesting. When it was our turn to host an event, we found out a couple of the attendees rode bikes in their spare time. That day they discovered that they could have bike parts specially developed at Fibre-Lyte and North Yorkshire Physio offered bespoke physiotherapy for bike riders. It stuck out in my mind and gave us the idea for our own tenant events.”
Bringing people together to create opportunity
Sue;
“We developed our own tenant meet and greet event so that business owners could meet each other in a relaxed environment, away from day to day work pressures. The uptake was great and at the last event we even gave people the opportunity to do a 2 minute pitch. Business was created on the back of those events. Covid put a hold on them but we will likely host again in the future. Our website has a news page which tenants can publish their news on free of charge. In addition, each tenant can add their logo and a link to their own website on our home page.”
Much like his father Terry before him, Mark is very hands on and if someone asks for help he’ll try to help them.
It’s not unusual
Mark:
“We’ve been asked for some interesting things over the years. The most unusual request was for a swimming pool in an office. That would have meant altering the building structure so it was declined, but we have managed a dog hydrotherapy pool. We do endeavour. With retail we try not to duplicate a business on the park without first having a conversation with the existing tenant. One of the most unusual businesses we’ve had was a potato peeler! He was here for years. Wireless Economics are probably one of the most awkward businesses we’ve had to describe ?.”
? How rude! (For those of you not aware, that’s the business I work for. We do get that a lot though!)
The most common feedback I hear from tenants on the benefits of being here are;
- plenty of car parking
- competitive rents
- easy in easy out terms
- ability to grow or shrink
- feeling safe here
- nothing is too much trouble for the landlords
But what do Mark and Sue enjoy about running the Terry Dicken Business Park?
A real community
Sue;
“There’s such a wide variety of people and businesses. Stokesley as a whole has everything you need. You can be pretty self sufficient and buy most things locally. We’re getting to the stage now where lots of tenants live locally too so the park has a real community feel.”
Mark;
“It’s never boring here! It can be hectic or quiet. On most days I’ll do a site walk around to check for repairs and pop my head through the door of some of the tenants to check in and say ‘Hi’. With prospective tenants I much prefer to show the units in person rather than just ‘send details’ That’s largely because we tend to tailor the units to suit the client. As square foot perception is often misinterpreted, it’s much more effective to walk someone around a space.”
For industrial units, offices and storage give Mark a call on 01642 714744 or 07595 022160 for more information or to get your name on the waiting list.
The rental office can be found at 6 Roseberry Court, Terry Dicken Business Park, Ellerbeck Way, Stokesley, TS9 5QT
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