In This Issue
'All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players...
New launches from Pedigree Garden at Spring Fair
Fairways and Bents celebrate top GCA awards
Jayne Scott from Daleside Klondyke is the Rising Star
Smart Garden Products scoops another major award
Cowells and Bents picked up Ruxley Rose Awards
'Green Up Your Gaff' is a winner for Perrywood
Greenfingers fundraising at GCA Conference reaches more than £30,000
Peter Seabrook urges garden centres to back a national rose festival week
‘Fun and frolics’ event raises over £20,000 for Greenfingers
Biggest business challenge? Automation without annoying customers...
Bad weather knocks the gloss of promising start
10 reasons to visit Glee at Spring Fair
GTN's Greatest Christmas Team Winners to be announced during Glee@Spring Fair
Territory Sales Manager / Account Manager
Head Gardener
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Primula and Hyacinth boost plant sales
Record garden centre sales of gift cards over Christmas
Voting opens for Bents' charity of the year
Garden lights shine through wintry weather
Charity auction raises almost £30,000 to change the lives of trainees through the power of horticulture
Ivyline announce their 2017 Agent of the year!
Stuttgarter back on top of Bestsellers Veg-2-Gro chart
Gardeners prepare for seed sowing season
Want to boost your learning potential?
The best of last week's
Barton Grange, Bents, Webbs, Stewarts, Fron Goch, Stratford, Fairways, Gordale win awards at GCA conference
Paul Dye's funeral details announced
Looking for Christmas Ideas for 2018?
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
All the latest news from the world of garden centre catering
A taste of things to come: Casual Dining exhibitors preview their new innovations for 2018
Situations Vacant
Territory Sales Manager / Account Manager
Competitive basic salary + OTE, car, laptop and mobile
 
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Head Gardener
Salary: £25,935 pa
 
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Email neil.pope@tgcmc.co.uk, or trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700



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and raise money for the Greenfingers Charity to build magical gardens at Childrens Hospices across the UK.


See GTN's photo tours of 30+ garden centres this Christmas including Bents, Barton Grange, Brookside, Castle Gardens, Planters, Scotsdales, Silverbirch, Ruxley Manor and Whitehall using this link


Biggest business challenge? Automation without annoying customers...

Many delegates who sat attentively through the GCA conference session by behavioural economist Roger Martin-Fagg will have left the room believing they had at least a better idea of how our “inherently unstable” economic system works, even if much of what he was telling us whiffed of smoke and mirrors.

 

But as layman’s guides go, this was a masterpiece in his usual incisive, light-hearted and often wickedly humorous style (last enjoyed at the conference in 2013).

 

Insisting he was in the businesses of illustrating scenarios, not forecasts, he gave us points like this to think about:

 

  • 1. Only 4% of our economy exists as “real money” – the rest is electronic digits.
  • 2. Banks are our biggest manufacturing business – they ‘manufacture’ money every time they led some to you.
  • 3. Over 80% of bank lending is on property – only 10% on business development.
  • 4. The UK money supply needs to grow 4-5% a year to create the 2% of economic growth in real terms the government seeks – a big ask, he said.
  • 5. Growth of 1.5% was more realistic, because we are at full employment and are losing the advantages of EU labour.
  • 6. Interest rates will probably go up twice next year – by 0.25% in both May and October.
  • 7. Of all the major economies, the UK’s is growing the slowest, but it’s in the context of a global upswing led by US (+3%), the EU (+3.5%) and China (+8%).
  • 8. Real incomes are falling due to the collapse of sterling after the Brexit vote.
  • 9. The rate of retail sales is trending steadily downwards.
  • 10. If the economy grows at only 1.5%, the weekly take base will drop by £350m and the government’s annual income will be 10% less than forecast.
  • 11. A property tax will be the only acceptable way to raise income.
  • 12. The biggest challenge for UK businesses will be how to increase automation (as the labour shortage begins to bite) without annoying the customers.
  • 13. A hard Brexit will cause a sterling crisis and a recession, because confidence will crash and companies will immediately delay payments.
  • 14. A soft Brexit is the most likely outcome because we are pragmatists and will fully align with EU regulations, accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, permit selective immigration control and pay a £45bn settlement over two years.
  • 15. “The transition deal will be the future deal – we don’t really leave.”
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