Richard Pyrah has more than 30 years in the garden market, but he believes this pre-season has been the best he’s ever experienced. AMES UK are reporting an uplift on 2018 of over 46% on a like for like basis across Kelkay, Woodshaw and La Hacienda.

Richard told GTN: “We enjoyed our best ever GLEE in September with significant sales and order growth coming from our core garden centre customers. Certainly, the new product ranges contributed, but the most satisfying trend is the strong growth in our core categories from our loyal customers.”

Richard’s focus for the next few weeks is in the customer service arena where he believes there are opportunities to adopt some best practices from the different teams within the AMES UK group. They’re starting with operational improvements in the way that bespoke point of sale design and print is delivered to customers. The aim is to provide a more flexible approach and to improve on speed and efficiency in response to individual garden centre needs.