In This Issue
Has Nicholas Marshall left Dobbies?
Scotts appoint Mark Portman as UK & Ireland General Manager as it's confirmed that Sheila Hill has left the company
Pennells acquires Four Seasons Garden Centre
Snow wreaks havoc for garden centre stores
Langlands donates food to Hull homeless
Staff take up curling at North Walsham, Bobsleigh at Lakeside Plant Centre and get Reindeer pulling sleighs at Richardsons Garden Centre
With Spring on hold make the most of Garden Re-Leaf Day
Last chance to sign up to Garden Re-Leaf Day!
Plant sales slow ahead of Big Freeze
New additions to successful GroZone range
Greenfingers and HTA collaborate on gifting initiatives
New look website for National Children’s Gardening Week
RHS ranking reveals pests and diseases rife in UK gardens
Tong's Orchid advice and MOT day hailed a success
Plant Show success for Klondyke
Snowy success for Garden Press Event
New HTA Chairman and Matthew Bent on BBC Radio 4 Consumer programme
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
David Domoney teams up with Kent & Stowe
Preparing for the Big Freeze
Young veg plants and herbs start to sell through but onion sets dominate
Will growing media momentum continue?
Wild Bird Care sales down by 30% but set to grow
Keukenhof - Meteorological spring has started
Looking for Christmas Ideas for 2018?
The best of last week's
"I will FIX this issue" Gardman CEO updates GTN Xtra on delivery issues
Wyevale unveils its first Garden Trends Report
Squire’s Garden Centre in Woking now open
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
All the latest news from the world of garden centre catering
Casual Dining brings new innovations and attracts record crowds
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



GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards 2107
are sponsored by:


and raise money for the Greenfingers Charity to build magical gardens at Childrens Hospices across the UK.


See GTN's photo tours of 30+ garden centres this Christmas including Bents, Barton Grange, Brookside, Castle Gardens, Planters, Scotsdales, Silverbirch, Ruxley Manor and Whitehall using this link


With Spring on hold make the most of Garden Re-Leaf Day

 

As ‘the Beast from the East’ has caused garden centres to close across the country we’ve been looking back through the GTN Bestsellers data to when we last had a cold March in 2013.


In that year, as you see in the graph above, there was a noticeable dip in sales at the start of March as we expect to see this year with this week’s snow and the freeze predicted to run into next week too. 


Then there was a good week’s trading in the middle of March around Garden Re-Leaf Day followed by more cold weather at the end of the month.


Everyone is now hoping that this very cold start to March is not followed by more bad weather later as in 2013, fingers crossed.  It does however place even more importance on implementing Garden Re-Leaf Day promotional ideas to get people back out to garden centres after the big freeze.


Garden Re-Leaf Day is Friday 16th March, which could be ideal timing at the end of the thaw, so make sure your teams get involved to help make up for lost sales this week and next. 


To find out more about Garden Re-Leaf Day go to: www.greenfingerscharity.org.uk/gardenreleaf


One of the great fun-draising ideas is the Garden Re-Leaf Plantathon which always generates loads of local press coverage and extra sales during March. 

 

GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year (week 8)

  • Garden Products - down 15%
  • Growing Media - down 18%
  • Veg-2-Gro - down 14%
  • Wild Bird Care - down 9%
  • All Plants Index - down 4%
  • All Items Index - down 9%

To subscribe to GTN Bestsellers email karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

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Linda Petrons
There are once again so many great ways to get involved with Garden Re-Leaf Day this year. 12 hour Plantathons, quiz nights, cake sales, coffee shop promotions and raffles are just a few ideas to get your staff and customers involved. Get in touch with Linda or Mandy or visit the website for more info. https://www.greenfingerscharity.org.uk/gardenreleaf