Bournemouth-headquartered Haskins Garden Centres chain is searching the country for potential new sites as it embarks on a national expansion programme.

Chartered surveyor Johnson Fellows has been appointed by Haskins Garden Centres to find seven to ten acre freehold, roadside sites in locations ranging from St Albans and Swindon in the south to Solihull and Bromsgrove in the West Midlands.

Haskins already has four garden centres in the south of England, employing more than 150 staff and generating a turnover last year of £33m.

Ken Salway, consultant at Birmingham-based Johnson Fellows, said: "Haskins is a very successful family-owned company with four destination garden centres offering products for the garden and home alongside restaurants and cafes serving freshly prepared meals.

"It's a successful business model which they want to replicate at sites within a three-hour drive of their head office. Sites we will consider must have a retail catchment population in excess of 150,000 people."

He added two possible sites had already been identified, with another six being researched.