When Joe Young opened Young’s Feed Store on Catoonah Street back in 1948, he probably never dreamed that 75 years later the Young’s name would continue to represent a prominent Ridgefield business.
The original Young’s Feed Store supplied several types of animal feed to local farmers and was a mainstay of the community. In 1973, after 25 years in business, Joe Young sold the store to Bob Fowsky, who continued to operate it in the same location on Catoonah Street, across from the Ridgefield Firehouse. Today the building is home to Colonial Cleaners.
In 1978, John Couri, a successful businessman and entrepreneur, purchased Young’s. John had settled in Ridgefield a few years earlier after marrying Elaine Conklin, a local girl with deep family roots in town. John and Elaine had met while working at John F. Kennedy Airport, where John owned a duty-free shop, and married in 1974. They made their home in Ridgefield and adopted their son, Christopher, in 1976.
After Couri took over the business, he expanded it into a Feed & Garden store, selling plants, soil and mulch in addition to animal feed and hay. In 1982, they expanded again, opening a power equipment showroom at 91 Danbury Road (across the parking lot from where Young’s is currently located).
In 1981, Couri recruited Dan Rella, a 26-year-old go-getter from Queens who worked for his duty-free business at JFK Airport, to be manager of both the feed store and the power equipment store. Rella moved with his young family from Queens to Danbury, and immediately took on managing the Young’s businesses—despite knowing next to nothing about power equipment or farm animals and their diets.
In 1984, Young’s Feed & Garden left Catoonah Street and merged with the power equipment operation at the larger location at 91 Danbury Road (the building is now home to Gyro on a Pita). There they continued to sell feed and garden supplies alongside John Deere tractors and other equipment. In 1990, an equipment rental arm of the business was opened across the parking lot in their current location at 99 Danbury Road.
Young’s expanded again and became a full-service residential landscaping contractor in 1995. Arnie Nielsen joined the team in 1998, the same year that Chris Couri graduated from business school. Chris took the reins of Young’s in 2001 and, with Dan Rella, expanded the business to include estate management and commercial landscaping. Soon they were handling year-round property maintenance including Ridgefield Bank, the Ridgefield Primary Care building, and the new RVNA building on Governor Street, among others.
In 2010, Young’s was forced to close the Feed & Garden retail store as well as the rental equipment business when John Deere pulled their licensing rights and big-box stores started taking over the garden supply market. Never ones to be discouraged, Young’s pivoted and started selling and installing fences alongside their landscaping services at 99 Danbury Road.
Since then, Young’s has grown into a full-service fence and landscape business, employing more than 35 employees. The company is in the process of being named a “Top Workplace in Fairfield County” by Hearst Media Group. It is a true family environment, with some team members working at Young’s for more than 25 years. Dan Rella and Chris Couri still lead the team today.
