In This Issue
Scotland joins Hillview Garden Centres
May is a record breaker for sales in garden centres
Gardman appoints operations director to define strategy
Fashion tycoon makes late bid for Dobbies, reports say
Cast stone helped garden to lift People's Choice award
Sapcote centre owners buys Sharnford site
Industry's first Chelsea garden is a big hit
Glee’s Green Heart set to inspire plant buyers with exciting cross merchandising displays
Search is on for Britain's best lawn
Never mind the football, feel the turf...
Award winning designer to speak at Wyevale Nurseries open day
Horticultural/Plantarea Manager – Somerset
Soft Landscaping Team Leader
Restaurant Manager - Gloucestershire
Garden Centre General Manager - Hampshire
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
200 new plants at Ball Colegrave's Summer Showcase
New sales manager for Barrus retail brands
Garden lighting product sales shine brightly
Clematis is HTA June Plant of the Moment
Herb plants show up in the Veg-2-Gro Bestsellers chart
Growing media sales continue to be strong
Inside the June issue of Garden Trade News
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
Don't miss HTA Catering Conference starting on Tuesday
Celebrity Masterchef winner Lisa Faulkner to present GTN's Greatest Catering Awards at the HTA Catering Conference
Situations Vacant
Horticultural/Plantarea Manager – Somerset
Salary: £19,000 - £22,000
 
Read more»
Soft Landscaping Team Leader
Salary: £18,500 - £22,500
 
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Restaurant Manager - Gloucestershire
Salary to attract the best
 
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Garden Centre General Manager - Hampshire
Salary: £40,000 - £60,000
 
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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
Fashion tycoon makes late bid for Dobbies, reports say

Reports circulating in the national press and online over the past week say that retail entrepreneur Philip Day, owner of Edinburgh Woollen Mill and the Peacocks fashion chain, has put in a last-minute bid to buy Dobbies from Tesco.

The front-runner to date in a sale process Tesco is believed to want to complete before the EU referendum on 23 June, is Terra Firma, owners of Wyevale Garden Centres, who have instructed Goldman Sachs to prepare a bid.

The bidding queue was rumoured to be down to two parties, one existing garden industry party and one from outside the garden retailing business.

EWM have more than 500 stores in the UK, many of them in Dobbies Garden Centres and at Wyevale sites.  Last week EWM bought the Austin Reed brand (but not the shops.)

Philip Day has a respected reputation as a business turn-round specialist, having rescued Peacocks from collapse, saving 6,000 jobs. His company, EWM, recently bought the Austin Reed brand but not the 120 stores and they were also reported to be in the initail running to buy the now failed BHS chain.

EWM was at one stage owned by Rutland Partners the current investors in Gardman.The asking price for Dobbies, which made a loss of £47m last year due to write downs in the value of the business by Tesco plc, is understood to be in the region of £175m to £200m.

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