Hope is on the horizon for the 465 staff at Dobbies that work in the 11 garden centres and 6 Little Dobbies stores that have been announced as “to be closed” at the end of the year as part of the re-structuring plan that Dobbies are working through currently.

GTN Xtra has been speaking with Jonathan Salt of Harvey Spack Field who are appointed agents for about half of the sites either going to be closed or going to be compromised where Dobbies are also seeking temporary rent reductions. “There's probably only one of my garden centres that is probably going to struggle by being a long-term garden centre.  I reckon there's a 95% chance that most of them will be garden centre, and maybe 100% in the short term. Possibly add-ons if they're not going to be garden centres, it might be garden centre and a food store or a garden centre and a gym that sort of thing. I think we can be positive about it. The opportunity now is that these garden centres can go to people that care about their people and care about their businesses.”

Jonathan explained that the landlords are happy to talk with new potential business owners about taking over the centres because they know the true potential of the sites and they are keen to negotiate rents that are viable for the long term.  “It will be short term pain for long term gain for the landlords.”

So, as Dobbies kicks off it’s Christmas retailing campaign “Christmas, in every sense”, it appears there is hope for staff, landlords and suppliers that the threatened closure of so many Dobbies Garden Centres at the end of the year may be providing opportunities for other garden centre operators to step in and get those retail sites back on track.