If Benjamin Franklin had been around, he may have wanted to amend his assertion that in this world nothing could be said to be certain except death and taxes. In my book, ongoing change in the garden industry is as safe a bet as you can find – the only uncertainty being the rate at which it happens.

It has speeded up in recent years, that’s for sure, as the big money takes a keener interest in the sector’s little adventures ...and the wealth they have created for a band of talented and creative entrepreneurs. While the industry’s pioneers, mainly family businesses, “did it for themselves”, these days, serious brains are imported from the wider commercial world to help polish the diamonds embedded there.

Needless to say, the bigger the business, the greater the need to bolt on specialised skills, as Wyevale Garden Centres has amply demonstrated in previous years.

In 2015, though, there have clear signs of a leaner and meaner approach by WGC in what is widely seen as prepping the business for Terra Firma’s exit. With the acquisition of Sidmouth GC, the number of centres broke through the 150 barrier and more acquisitions are expected in the New Year, providing the evidence of growth that potential buyers will no doubt demand.

Another clue was the surprise departure of WGC’s food and beverage director Jason Danziger, which suggested that, following the successful development of the Coffee Grounds and Botanic Kitchen concepts, his work there was done.

Earlier in the year, many began to wonder if WGC’s estate might end the year closer to 200 outlets as rumours abounded that it was in the final stages of negotiations with Tesco to buy the Dobbies chain of 35 centres.

Two remarks fuelled the speculation. Chief executive Kevin Bradshaw told a suppliers’ meeting that WGC was in talks with “a chain of over 30 centres”. Who else, but Dobbies? Then, at Chelsea, when Terra Firma boss Guy Hands was asked about Dobbies, he replied “Well I can’t say anything about that, but I’d love to," adding, “I don’t know when anything will happen, it’s all up to Tesco’s.”

Enough said. But that was more or less the last we heard of that thread.

The plot thickened somewhat when the scale of Tesco’s woes became apparent: 40 stores would be closed and divestment of ancillary businesses was mooted. Was a garden centre chain a distraction Drastic Dave (Lewis, CEO) could do without, we asked (and not for the first time).

 The £83m write-down (in goodwill and other impairments) on the value of Dobbies announced in April’s preliminary results was followed by the news in December’s results that the group had reduced the book value of its properties by £46.4m to £191m following the latest review. But Dobbies said it was happy with its full year’s trading, which showed like-for-like sales growth and profit and cash generation that were well ahead of expectations.

So we’ve still got a guessing game.

Of course, it’s not all about Wyevale and Dobbies. All the other groups are either buying or investing in redevelopment, or both. Blue Diamond were the first of 2015 to announce an acquisition (Newbridge), Notcutts and Klondyke say acquisition is on the agenda, Squires would like more and Home & Garden are quietly building up numbers (now eight).

In the background, Waitrose has done a good job milking its affluent footfall for add-on garden sales. It rated its 167 gardening pods as one of the sales highlights of the year.

Garden Centre catering has been booming for many seasons but in 2015 everybody wanted some of the action, as burgeoning attendance at the HTA’s excellent catering conference testified.

On the supplier front, key core gardening specialists Sinclair Horticulture provided the shock headline of the year. The business was known to be financially challenged after spending £25m on its new Ellesmere Port facility – and the ‘for sale’ notice had been up for some time – but it still came as a shock when it suspended its share dealings on the AIM after running out of a cash (following an earlier warning from chairman Rupert King). When no emergency funding could be found, the company called in the administrators – and rival supplier Westland promptly stepped in to buy the business. Within days, Westland said it had decided to remove all green waste from Sinclair’s peat-free media in the interests of product consistency.

There were a number of key to-ings and fro-ings in garden industry boardrooms. In January Sheila Hill replaced Martin Breddy at Scotts Miracle-Gro, embarked on a tour of 50 garden centres to gather feedback, and in May announced that the company was divesting all the Solus brands acquired in 2014 except Chapelwood, which was targeting bird care market leadership within three years.

At Gardman, CEO Stewart Hainsworth left in April to return to the drinks industry but it was November before chairman Jonathan Halford appointed a successor (Pete Utting of Whitworths).

Notcutts appointed former Hobbs and M&S executive Nicky Dulieu as non-executive chairman - and she was later to announce Nick Burrows (ex-Thames Club and First Sports Group) as the group’s new CEO.

Two garden retail stalwarts announced their retirements – Bob Hewitt, CE of Klondyke group (end of January) and Dennis Espley, MD of Squires group (end of April).

As ever, Carol Paris’s team of beavers at the HTA lobbed reminders to ministers about the pressures the living wage would impose on the industry and the iniquities of our Sunday Trading laws. The latter are to be relaxed to allow local councils to set policy - result!

Farewell to a trio of characters we shall miss...
    

Left to right: Charles Notcutt (81), Dave Stafford (71) and John Pearson (87)