GTN Xtra - GTN Xtra Issue 14 2018

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

Home & Garden Group of nine garden centres goes into administration

GTN Xtra has learned today that the Home & Garden Group, which own nine garden centres, has gone into administration. The news came from several sources...

Rutland Garden Centre is part of the Home & Garden Group.

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Gardman reactivates King's Lynn site and re-employs ex-staff in the aftermath of Daventry fire

Gardman is reactivating its site at King's Lynn and 25 former staff are being re-employed as the company recovers from the devastating fire at its new distribution centre in Daventry on March 12...

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'Redfields Plus' wows customers in Nottingham

Blue Diamond opened their 20th garden centre on Thursday 22nd March at East Bridgford, Nottingham. The design, described by MD Alan Roper as "Redfields Plus" was an instant hit with customers resulting in packed car parks, busy cafe, thousands of Diamond Club sign ups and plenty of full trolleys going through the tills...

See GTN Xtras full picture tour of the new centre

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Garden Pride takes on new range of hanging baskets
GTN Xtra Promotion

Following the success of the relaunch in September 2017, Garden Pride have taken on several new lines of hanging baskets, coco liners, jute liners and pre lined troughs...

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Beast from the East MkII delivers trading blow

Just when we thought gardeners would be getting active the ‘Beast from the East 2’ delivered another cruel blow to garden centres by arriving right at the weekend...

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Wyevale Nurseries has the highest sales week in history

Wyevale Nurseries in Hereford has announced its highest sales week (March 12 until 18, 2018) in the company’s history, beating its previous record breaking sales week, which was in 2008 by 17%...

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Resolva Pro TV Ad - sneek preview

Westland's new TV Ad for Resolva Pro goes on air from 23rd April to 30th May and GTN Xtra has been behind the scenes to see how the ad was created...

Watch the trailer and see behind the scenes pictures

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Two more Bunnings Warehouse stores open despite ongoing fears that owners Wesfarmers will quit UK

Home improvement and garden retailer Bunnings Warehouse has opened two more stores – Walton-on-Thames and Norwich Sprowston – amid ongoing fears that its Australian owners Wesfarmers will pull the plug on the UK operation...

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Plant sales halve during cold snap

Plantaria managers and growers did not need the second blast of cold weather last week. With sales down vs last year for the fifth successive week, and last week they were down by 53% to the level as at the end of February, plant benches are crammed with stock that needs to be moved on...

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Wyevale offer £5 voucher to spend in store this weekend

Wyevale Garden Centres have come up with a money-saving way of enticing customers back into their stores after the recent cold snap…a £5 voucher to spend this weekend...

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Green-fingered gardeners at Squire's raise money for Greenfingers

Squire’s Garden Centres took part in a 12-hour 'Plantathon' on Garden Re-Leaf Day to raise money for Greenfingers...

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Deco-Pak gets creative with sales support

Leading decorative aggregates, landscaping and birdbox supplier Deco-Pak has announced three new additions to its creative team to aid both sales support and new product development...

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Kelkay is recognised as one of Yorkshire’s fastest growing businesses

Kelkay Ltd has been selected as one of Yorkshire’s fastest growing companies at a business awards event organised by leading law firm, Ward Hadaway...

Pictured: Antony Harker, Chief Executive, and Bob Hewitt, Non-Executive Director of Kelkay Ltd.

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Early signs of success for VivaGreen MossOff and Johnsons Lawn Seed

The UK’s leading grass seed brand, Johnsons Lawn Seed has seen an encouraging start to 2018, thanks to the increasing sales of VivaGreen MossOff - added to the company’s distribution portfolio in late 2017...

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Horticultural Action Plan launched in Scotland

A Scottish Horticultural Action Plan, highlighting the contribution of parks and gardens to the wider Scottish economy, has been launched...

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Pets gets its own dedicated sector at Glee

The organisers of Glee have confirmed that 2018 is set to mark an exciting year of development for pet products at the show, with several exciting enhancements being added to a dedicated pet sector – ‘Pets at Glee’.

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What do elephants, cyclists, golfers and horses have in common?

Elephants, cyclists, golfers and even prancing Ferrari horses all feature in Allensmore Nurseries 2018 topiary range...

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GTN March 2018 Issue OUT SOON! To view a digital version click here

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Chris Patemen quits as HTA Chairman

Chris Pateman has left his post as Chairman of the HTA due to family reasons...

Garden product sales go back into hibernation

The cold weather may have sent less keen gardeners back into hibernation but serious ones have been active buying tools and products ready for when the weather warms up. Burgon & Ball’s Micro Secateurs move up to No 1 and No 2 in the GTN Bestsellers chart...

Mulch ado about nothing for growing media sales

The mini ‘Beast from the East’ certainly dented hopes of the expected mid-March upturn in growing media sales with volumes falling back from the previous week. The cold blast did bring a benefit for mulches to protect young plants, however...

Onion Sets Red Baron flies back to the top

Taylors Onion Sets Red Baron flew back to the top of the GTN Veg-2-Gro chart in a week when sales volumes grew by 29%...

Cold weather doesn’t help Wild Bird Care sales

The second blast of cold weather didn’t have any positive impact on the sale of Wild Bird Care products with the Top 50 GTN Bestsellers volumes dropping by 21%...

Bord Na Móna Horticulture announces new Head of Horticulture – Mark Higgins

Mark Higgins has taken over the position as Head of Horticulture for Bord Na Móna.

Coming Soon! GIMA Knowledge Exchange Workshops

GIMA’s Knowledge Exchange Programme is set to return in April, this time presenting two special one-day sessions focussing on Sales Territory Planning and New Product Development – open to both GIMA members and non-members...

The best of last week's

If you missed last week's GTN Xtra, below are the most-read stories...

Gardman plan first deliveries after the fire for week commencing 26th March

After the devastating fire that caused the loss of over £20m of stock and the complete Daventry warehouse last week, Gardman are planning first shipments for week commencing 26th March...

Read Gardman's latest update and GTN Comment

Garden Re-Leaf Day provides FUNdraising and sales opportunities before the snow

A sunny day, you'd almost think it was spring, greeted nearly 100 Greenfingers Charity supporters at Wyevale Worlds End on Friday for the fourth annual Garden Re-Leaf Day sponsored walk and first ever Garden Re-Leaf Day sponsored cycle ride...

Garden Pride takes on new range of hanging baskets

Following the success of the relaunch in September 2017, Garden Pride have taken on several new lines of hanging baskets, coco liners, jute liners and pre lined troughs...