It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s full of stock and deliveries are heading out daily from the “new” old Gardman Warehouses in Kings Lynn.

It may be a long way from the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when they put the Ark of the Covenant away in that warehouse as Pete Utting, CEO of Gardman, described their new 70,000 pallet space warehouse at Daventry which burned to the ground last month, but the calm workman like atmosphere in three of the re-established old Gardman warehouses should fill garden centre retailers with confidence that as soon as the products are back in stock, deliveries will be back up to the standard set and expected by Gardman prior to the Daventry move.

GTN Xtra called in last week to see how the business recovery operation was progressing.  “We shipped out 1,500 pallets in four days,” Operations Director Paul Young explained.  “We now have 1,200 lines ready for picking with more arriving next week.”

We were particularly pleased to know that there are seven containers of bamboo canes arriving during this week, which should be a great relief to all gardeners across the country for when they need to get their plants supported.

By the end of next week Gardman at Kings Lynn will have received 200 containers from China, trailers of products from the UK and Europe and some lines that have been air freighted in to leapfrog the shipping times since the fire on March 12^th 2018.

The “new” old warehouse is being staffed by 100% Gardman employees who have come back to work for the company.  XPO logistics are providing the delivery services.

Paul Young told GTN Xtra: “I’m hugely appreciative of the loyalty and ownership of the Gardman team.  We are already able to provide a basic service and provide it very well.  Huge thanks go to all of the Kings Lynn team who have made it happen.”

“This is by far the fastest business recovery I have been involved in,” added Paul, “the whole team immediately switched their focus onto getting deliveries back into operation and keeping projects such as the new Wild Bird Care launch, planned for August 1^st, on track.”

During our morning spent with the Kings Lynn team it was good to see well picked, well packed and full pallets labelled up ready to be delivered into many garden centres.   It would appear that Gardman are very much back in business and providing a level of service more akin to before the Daventry move.  If you receive a delivery from Gardman this week please let us know your teams reaction to it; trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

Feedback from Gouldings Garden Centre in Scotland:

"We placed our 1st order post Gardman’s fire last Monday (2nd April) with our agent. The order arrived before lunchtime on Thursday 5th April (our usual delivery day before the new warehouse was Thursday/Friday).

"All the stock we ordered was present and correct. But best off all Gardman have returned to using the original paperwork. It is so much clearer and easier to follow than the paperwork we were receiving form the new warehouse.

"It was a breath of fresh air to see pallets arriving from Gardman, in their absence the last few weeks it has been a bit of a challenge to try and “fill the gaps”. It’s not until Gardman are not available that we realised how much we rely on their products and the great service we receive. Keep up the good work Gardman!"

Gordon Shute, Shop Manager, J L Goulding & Son