Almost 18 months on from the start of the Wyevale Garden Centres "Sale of the Century", Sprowston Garden Centre in Norwich, which was the last to trade under the Wyevale Garden Centres banner, has now transferred to the ownership of British Garden Centres.

Anthony Jones, Wyevale Garden Centres COO, led the Wyevale team at the centre as they prepared for the final garden centre transfer along with Charles Stubbs, Managing Director of British Garden Centres with his signage, IT and operations team.

As Charles Stubbs took control of his 49th garden centre he told GTN Xtra: "It feels fantastic, I'm very proud and very excited."  Anthony Jones, who leaves Wyevale Garden Centres at the end of this month said: "It’s sad now this is the last centre to transfer, but I’m proud that we got so many positive outcomes along the way. 95% of the centres are still in the industry and 97% of our colleagues have kept their jobs."

All of the centre staff, led by manager Paul Marlow, are transferring to British Garden Centres and they are now busy unpacking new stock and creating their Christmas displays.

See GTN Xtra's photos of Sprowston, the last Wyevale Garden Centre, and the start of the transformation to British Garden Centres below.

Out of 145 garden centres put up for sale by Wyevale Garden Centres owners Terra Firma at the end of May 2018, 131 have been sold as trading garden centres.  Sprowston is one of 37 bought by British Garden Centres.  Dobbies also bought 37 of the Wyevale sites and Blue Diamond purchased 16 centres including the very first Wyevale Garden Centre in Hereford where Henry Williamson started the business in 1932.  A total of 31 different purchasers acquired trading garden centres as part of the process which was made up of 57 seperate transactions including those sites sold for development.

Wyevale Garden Centres:  1932-2019.

Search the GTN Xtra Archive via this link to see all of GTN Xtra' coverage of "The Sale of the Century."