The owners of Gateacre Garden Centre in Liverpool are closing down the store to concentrate on expanding their successful Burleydam centre in Ellesmere Port, voted Best Garden Centre in the GCA North West regional awards (above)
Gateacre, which has been open for more than 80 years, is closing its doors at the end of July.
The garden centre in Acrefield Road was opened by Ernie Williams and is currently run by the third generation of the family.
Ernie, who had originally opened a florist’s shop in West Derby, was a gardening pioneer. In the 1930s he started a landscaping business and rented various sites in south Liverpool before purchasing the land on Acrefield Road and starting to sell to the public. At the time, roses, trees and shrubs could only be sold in the autumn and winter when they could safely be lifted out of the ground.
Ernie and his sons had the idea of using discarded fruit tins from Hartley’s jam factory. This meant that gardening could become a year-round activity as plants could be purchased during the spring months, just when gardeners wanted them.
By the 1960s gardening had become incredibly popular and the Acrefield Road site became Gateacre Garden Centre when it opened as one of the first dedicated garden centres in the country.
His granddaughter, Sally Cornelissen, has had to take the difficult decision to close the centre and said: “Garden centres have evolved and become larger to offer more shopping and gift choices alongside plants and garden products. Cafes and restaurants are now an important part of garden centres and have extended a simple trip out to buy plants into an all-day experience.
“The size and shape of the Acrefield Road site mean we cannot extend our facilities and we also face space and planning issues in relation to car parking. After a great deal of discussion and soul searching we have decided to focus investment in our second site, Burleydam Garden Centre at Little Sutton on the Wirral.
“There is currently an expansion plan at Burleydam enabling us to improve our retail and catering areas and extend car parking facilities after buying some adjacent land.”
It is hoped that some of the 19 staff who work at Gateacre may consider moving to Burleydam Garden Centre.
Sally added: “Gateacre holds many fond memories and over the years many of our customers and their families have become friends. I would like to take the opportunity to thank them for their support over the years and look forward to welcoming them to Burleydam.”
The Liverpool Echo had reported that the opening of a nearby Dobbies had been a big factor in the closing of the store.
But Sally told GTN Xtra: "Dobbies have obviously had an effect on business, which would have been no problem had we been able to compete on a level playing field, but we trade off just over an acre in a built-up area and, as you know, out of town sites with their attendant attractions are where the money is going these days. We have purchased further land at Burleydam and consider investment there will have a much greater return.
"Sadly, Gateacre’s closure is a sign of the times for our industry and a very sad time for us. I was brought up climbing peat bales and weighing out grass seed and I remember my mother telling me that on their first date, my father took her – in full evening dress – to stoke up the boilers of the greenhouses on the way home. How times change!"
