In This Issue
Garden centre sales up 30% in September
Hozelock unveils impressive range of sprayers for 2021
Christmas gets off to a flying start – up 71%
The birth of a brand: Woodlodge’s new Honey & Wild range to ignite sales of garden décor in 2021
September plant sales beat last year by 50%
Blue Diamond interim results show resilient performance
Garden centres must work in partnership with suppliers
Visors out sell facemasks in garden centres
Missed the Ball Colegrave Summer Trials?
Video: Rudbeckia range exceeds expectations at Hyde Hall
Greenfingers thanks Evergreen Garden Care for support
Christmas displays return to The Gardens Group
Neudorff is a finalist in the German Sustainability Award
The unique BucketBarrow arrives In UK
Dobbies to host Spooktacular events this Halloween
New Hortes garden centre in Riga opens this month
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Retirement Village plan submitted for Solihull garden centre site
Fervour to grow sees record growing media sales
Robotime, a Chinese brand of DIY Model Kits come to UK garden centres
New record high for garden product sales
This year, GrootGroenPlus goes digital - will you join us?
'Knowing their Onions' sees Autumn Grow Your Own rise to new high
AIPH looks to the future with new members and new strategic plan
Wild Bird and Wildlife Care products show signs of growth
HTA statement on Migration Advisory Committee review
The best of last week's
September garden centre sales head for 20% up
Santa’s Grotto at Hillmount opens for Pre-Booking
Autumn plant sales head back towards past glories
Award-winning Zest 4 Leisure launch lifestyle product video support package
Tong appoints project manager for Food Hall makeover
Wild Bird Care dissapoints so far this Autumn
Royal seal of approval for HTA #MillionPlantingMoments campaign
Nicola Pugh joins the HTA Council
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to the GTN Bestsellers printed weekly newsletter
All the latest news from the world of pet products
New dates for PATS Sandown 2021
UK pet food industry performance revealed in new report
Winners of the PetQuip Awards 2020 revealed
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Blue Diamond interim results show resilient performance

Blue Diamond have reported profits before tax of £6.3m for the six months to June 2020.  That covers the period when all but one of their centres were closed for seven weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic and all restaurant closed for half of the time.

 

Total sales declined by 5% and the profit before tax was 12% down year on year excluding the profit made on the sale of freehold properties in 2019.

 

Chairman Simon Burke explained in his statement that additional bank facilities have not needed to be used: “ Cash has been conserved to the point where net cash flow was actually strongly positive in the period, and debt at 30 June represented just 0.8 times EBITDA, a gearing of 16.5%. These figures need to be seen in the context of a significant increase in creditors as many cash payments were delayed, a VAT deferral of £3m and the postponement of other liabilities including bonuses. Some of this cash will therefore have flowed back out since the period end, or will do so later, but it is good news that we have not needed to use the additional bank facilities we negotiated back in March.”

 

The board are recommending an interim dividend payment of 2p per share in line with 2019.

 

Simon Burke concludes his report by looking ahead: “I believe that garden centres will be one of the winners from this crisis, benefiting from a further decline in the attractiveness of high streets and large shopping centres, and people’s reinvigorated focus on their homes and gardens as a result of the pandemic. Blue Diamond’s broad, high quality ranges with so much exclusive product position us well to take advantage of these trends, as we have already seen in our continuing outperformance of industry figures.

 

"We also now have an operational online business that we can develop in coming years. It is still unclear what kind of world will emerge from the pandemic, but I am optimistic that Blue Diamond can continue to thrive in it.”

 

See the full interim report at: https://www.bluediamond.gg/sites/default/files/uploads/R%2BA_Interim%202020_FINAL.pdf

 

 

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beverley hill
"significant increase in creditors as many cash payments were delayed"
Hmmmmmmm............... and they ended up with £17M in the bank for the period partly as a result of not paying their suppliers