An  account by Lauren Cocks (above), marketing manager at East Yorkshire garden centre Coletta & Tyson, of the how their new café had taken the garden centre forward, contained some impressive statistics.

Targeting primarily the over-60s market, turnover had grown from £157,000 in the orginal 60-covers café to £458,000 in the new 192-seater, where as many ingredients as possible were sourced within a 25-mile radius. Lauren said that since they had started baking their own cakes, the margin had increased from 52 to 84 per cent.

Elly Yates (right), co-owner of the Plantation garden centre near Knutsford, Cheshire, spelled out the three essentials that has made their re-vamped Colonial Café such a success – “great coffee, irresistible cakes and great soup –great food in lovely surroundings.”

Like Coletta & Tyson, most of their produce is locally sourced – and they make sure customers know about it. “What makes us different?” she asked. “It’s us! We are there all the time, we keep wastage to a minimum and we appreciate the difference between home-baked cakes and bought-in. We even choose our own coffee blend from the roaster.”

Plantation’s ‘catering bus’ is an innovation others will surely copy. Parked outside the entrance, it offers “quick fix” coffee and cakes and is used to promote the centre at local shows.

Since the re-vamp, Elly said, café turnover had doubled and gross margin improved from 61% to 73%, more than 100% to net profit from catering.