Kirsty Clark from Essex garden centre Perrywood was voted the UK’s best young garden centre employee in the play-offs of the GCA’s Rising Stars competition sponsored by Westland.

Five entrants out of the 27 who entered this year’s contest made the final cut, selected by GCA inspector Ian Boardman, GCA chief executive Iain Wylie and Westland marketing director Keith Nicholson. But it was the delegates who watched Monday’s conference presentations who were given the task of casting votes for an overall winner.

The runners-up were Matthew Fay (Stewarts), Hannah Mason (Chessington), Lisa Waim (Haskins Snowhill) and Cerys Williams (Perrywood).

Kirsty Clark said it felt great to win and she looked forward to returning to conference as her career develops to challenge Barton Grange’s domination.

Westland joint MD Edward Conroy said he was pleased to see garden centres reacting so positively to the Rising Stars programme and treating it as a serious opportunity to develop their young employees.

Now, Kirsty is urging other garden centre staff to sign up for the 2015 programme before the closing deadline of February 19.

The Rising Stars Programme, run by Westland Horticulture and supported by the GCA has been running since 2009. Its aim is to develop the best new talent in the garden centre industry through a year-long training course facilitated by Ian Boardman, IBBIS Director. The course helps the Rising Stars understand the importance of merchandising and worked with each to show what they could implement at their own garden centres and measure results.

Ian said “I was proud of them all and what they had achieved. Their presentations were very professional and they received great applause and many compliments from the audience. I liked the way they were all cheering each other on and had bonded as a mini team”.

Keith Nicholson, Marketing Director for Westland Horticulture, said: “Encouraging new and emerging talent is essential for the future of our industry, bringing fresh ideas and inspiration. That’s why Westland will continue to invest heavily in training for garden centre staff and will once again support the next Rising Stars programme.”