In This Issue
Fermoys and Le Friquet are the Garden Centres of the Year at Blue Diamond
Briers team joins Smart Garden Products
After Red Nose Day it's time to Go Green for Garden Re-Leaf Day
Pruning made simple with GARDENA’s new range of loppers
Looking forward to Mother's Day and Garden Re-Leaf
Mezu Silk Flowers – Cultivating A Business
Dobbies director to address GIMA Day Conference in April
Taylor Made Designs will make your staff look & feel great
Garden product suppliers hear export case studies
Charity shop and garden centre takings slump to £3 because of road closure
Horticulture to benefit from DCF’s investment in students
Extinction threat to beneficial UK slug
Haskins at West End raises £1,400 for hospice.
Darlac donates tools to assist injured service personnel
Squire’s employees really make a difference
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
New app will match up buyers and sellers at Glee
Young veg plants rush through the tills
Application to redevelop Squires Garden Centre, Windsor, withdrawn
Wild Bird Care down by 25%
Aldi wins approval to build on Malmesbury Garden Centre site
Growing activity up on both 2018 amd 2017
GIMA Awards entry now open
Propagation lights up garden product sales
Blooming Marvellous! £37K boost for national garden tourism group
Bumper week for young Veg Plants
Kingston Landscape Group Ltd takes home the Supreme Winner title at the APL Awards 2019
Buyers from Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Lithuania and Dubai seek new garden and pet products at event
The best of last week's
Shaw Trust buy two centres from Hillview
Jane Lawler joins GCA’s team of inspectors
Plant buyers in positive mood at Classiflora
Plant sales lead the way – up 456% compared to last year
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
All the latest news from the world of garden centre catering
CEOs of Jamie’s Italian & Las Iguanas join Commercial Kitchen’s stellar Keynote line-up
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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






Fermoys and Le Friquet are the Garden Centres of the Year at Blue Diamond

Blue Diamond Awards 2019 190319_GTN182 Fermoys GC of Year.jpg

Blue Diamond celebrated their annual awards last night at Chateau Impney in the West Midlands with Fermoys and Le Friquet winning the Acorn and Oak Cups for Blue Diamond Garden Centres of the Year.  Trelawney and Redfields won the Blue Diamond Restaurant of the Year Awards and Managing Director Alan Roper was presented with a special award to recognise his 20 years at Blue Diamond.

Blue Diamond Awards 2019 190319_GTN188 Le Friquet Dest GC of Year.jpg

 

Over 500 staff from the 30 centres were joined by suppliers at the prestigious evening where winners were lauded across the group activities from Stock Management to Pastry Chef of the Year. Full list of winners below.

 

Blue Diamond Awards 2019 190319_GTN224 Simon Burke, Alan Roper, Geoffrey Dorey.jpg

 

Blue Diamond Awards 2019 190319_GTN237 Alan Speccial Award.jpgOn receiving his special award from Chairman Simon Burke and Life President Geoffrey Dorey, Alan said: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute. There are 500 people in this room and there is a strong bond and strong connection between everyone of you. The energy, the sense of achievement and all being proud to work together as a great team. All I can do is lead, but you need a great team of people.  Without exception you’re just brilliant.  Thank you.” 

 

Earlier in the evening Alan announced a new centre development had been agreed at Elevden in Suffolk with further developments in progress at Totley in the Peak District, Tewkesbury and Scotch Corner.

 

“The group increased like for like turnover by 33% to £128m excluding Wyevale acquisitions and East Bridgford  in 2018 and projected sales for 2019 are £170m.

 

Full list of Blue Diamond Award Winners 2019:

Stock Management Award: 3 Shires

 

Home Award: Carol Spain - Fermoys and Sarah Thompson - Redfields

 

Christmas Award:  Dennis Risdon - Trelawney and Matt Gouveia – Le Friquet

 

Visual Merchandising Award: Suzie Young – Redfields

 

Fashion Award: Helen Danning – Trelawney and Amanda Brown-Reed – St Peters

 

Garden Care & Décor Award: Julie Sills – Harlow and Clye Hooper – Le Friquet

 

Garden Features & Containers Award: Andrew Lloyd – 3 Shires

 

Wild Animals Award: Suki Crook – St Peters

 

Furniture & Outdoor Leisure Award: Tracey Uphill – Chatsworth and Matt Gouveia – Le Friquet

 

Seeds & Bulbs Award: Fergus Keating – Brambridge Park and Tina Luker – Trentham

 

Seasonal Plants Award: Martina Mallett – Matlock and Anna Lancaster – Redfields

 

Hardy Plants Award: Peter Shirley – Fryers and Gemma Woods – Derby

 

Indoor Plants Award: Katie Wardell – Newbridge and Kevin Fleming – Trentham

 

Best Garden Centre for Social Media Engagement:  Grosvenor

 

Best Garden Centre for Customer Engagement and Loyalty:  Fermoys

 

Customer Service Superstar: All Blue Diamond Customer Service Managers

 

Head Chef of the Year: John Waldron – Newbridge

 

Pastry Chef of the Year: Tracey Miller – Chatsworth

 

Restaurant of the Year: Trelawney and Redfields

 

Core Garden Centre of the Year, The Acorn Cup: Fermoys

 

Destination Garden Centre of the Year, The Oak Cup: Le Friquet.

 

The awards in each category were presented by the group specialist teams based on performance over the whole of 2018 against the Blue Diamond BPI measures (Business Performance Indicators including profit per customer.)  Centres are grouped according to size with smaller “Core” centres grouped as Acorn and larger “Destination” centres as Oak.

 

 

 

 

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