In This Issue
Dobbies close their centres this morning
Rainbows of Cheer
Dobbies remain open and social media gets heated
David Domoney gives garden centre delivery services a lift on national radio
Gardening for Children - what a great opportunity for garden centres to help during the emergency
Garden Centres close their doors "We want to be part of stopping the spread of Coronavirus"
Pop up Veg shops - Garden Centres help ease pressure on buying fresh food
Gardening starts to grow as people prepare for long stay at home
Orangutan Books specialise in extremely high-quality bespoke gift books for your Christmas event
For sale - A long Established Garden Centre Business
Notcutts celebrates one million donations through Pennies
Floriculture contributes to public health with #flowers4oxygen
Garden Re-Leaf Day 2020 celebrates another superb day of FUNdraising
BBC Gardeners’ World Live postponed following recent COVID-19 advice
David Domoney urges people to garden during difficult times
Deliveries to customers - another way to help your community
A message from Greenfingers Charity Chairman, Sue Allen
GTN Bestsellers Garden Re-Leaf Subscription Offer
Nursery calls for more centres to sell veg & food
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Thank goodness for gardening
Rapid sales of veg plants
Stockpiling compost – whatever next?
Veg-2-Gro sales caught on the hop
Christmas Grotto Gift Books
The best of last week's
Trading update from this weekend - UPDATED
Rising to the Challenge
100% Business Rates Reliefs for Garden Centres Confirmed
Blue Diamond Awards Shine Brightly
Garden Re-Leaf Day 2020 is a FUNdraising success
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
Send us your news and great ideas

Contact us with your news. 

Email neil.pope@tgcmc.co.uk, or trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700


Dobbies remain open and social media gets heated

After last nights statement from the Prime Minister Dobbies garden centres have decided to stay open, citing that 70% of their turnover represents essential goods according to government guidance.

 

So far GTN Xtra has not found any other garden centres that have opened for business today, apart from those only offering local delivery services from phoned in orders.

 

Following Dobbies posts on Facebook and Twitter this morning there have been thousands of comments from customers and other members of the industry.  You can read some of the comments by going to the Dobbies Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=dobbies%20garden%20centre&epa=SEARCH_BOX

 

Normally we would have popped out to Dobbies Peterborough to take some photos of how the Dobbies team are managing the social distancing etc, but as we are on lockdown too we decided that would count as non essential travel.

 

We've asked Dobbies for a comment but as we publish this update we've not heard back yet.  Watch this space.

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Paul Hargreaves
Some of our garden centre customers have been providing a vital service to their local communities over the past two weeks delivering food to the elderly and infirm, so if Dobbies are planning on doing that, then full marks to them! One garden centre we supply in Leicstershire is the only large food shop for miles around and urounded by villages with a high average age
Doug Stewart
This is wrong
It is wrong as it is clearly not following government advice
It is wrong as they are twisting things to their own advantage
It is an insult to the horticultural industry
It is an insult to small family run garden centres up and down the land
#boycottDobbies
Adrian Goodall
Essential goods "my a**e. if they were not in such debt from their purchases from Wyevale they would be following what every decent local garden centre is doing and donating all of their food which is in date

A complete joke. We have closed our operation and donated all of our perishable goods to local food banks, care homes, and schools who are supporting looked after staff welfare and done what ever we can to support the local community I am so sorry that Dobbies are trying to con the general public and actually endanger lives for a few pounds in their pockets. Do the right thing, protect your staff and customers and close tomorrow, donate the goods that will go out of date to worth while causes and get some worthwhile positive PR. From an independent who is proud of supporting and protecting their staff and local community
Ken Cox
I would not mind so much if their statement was not clearly a lie. They published their breakdown earlier in the year... 34% gardening, 24% concessions... etc and the cafes are at least 25% of turnover. So they cannot possibly claim that 70% of their turnover represents 'essential goods'. The Social media is 90% anti this decision. I wonder if they'll change their mind. I dont think it is fair on their staff to put themselves at risk in clearly non essential retail and I expect our customers will start asking why we are not open if Dobbies are.
Oliver Queen
Clearly not essential and clearly the rest of this fantatsic industry has more ethics than Dobbies.
When did 70% of their sales ever come from these products... plants, compost, fertilisers, other garden products, Christmas and the restaurants only come to 30%, I don't think so.