Garden Centre Association members are being invited to put together their marketing campaigns to enter the organisation’s prestigious annual Worrall Cup competition.

The Association will be awarding a cup to the garden centre with the best marketing initiative during its 2025 annual conference in January.

GCA CEO, Peter Burks says: “Our member garden centres demonstrate some great marketing pzazz all year round and we run our Worrall Cup competition annually to decide who has the most creativity.

“This is a great opportunity for members to win a wonderful award, where both flair and commercial success are rewarded. If any of our members think they’ve got what it takes to win the cup this year, they should submit their entries before the deadline of Friday, January 10, 2025.

“The entries will be judged by an independent panel of judges with marketing expertise. As this award is not influenced by the annual inspection, all entries have an equal chance of winning when the judging panel meet in January to assess the merits of each submission and decide the winner.”

Members are asked to submit an entry by completing a short form, which can be downloaded here https://bit.ly/3USJMuX.

The submission of supporting material, such as photographs, print examples and web-links, is encouraged. An additional sheet of written detail is acceptable along with the entry form, if required. Entries can be sent electronically via info@gca.org.uk or by post.

Peter adds: “The winner will be announced during our Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony at our conference on the evening of Tuesday, January 28. The event takes place at De Vere Wokefield Estate, Reading, from January 26 until 29, 2025 and places can still be booked via Garden Centre Association Tickets, Bundles - Buy Online.”

There is also a dedicated email for any queries members, and those wishing to book for the event, may have: conference@gca.org.uk.

The GCA represents more than 200 garden centres nationwide.

Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.

The deadline for Worrall Cup entries is Friday, January 10, 2025.

For further information, please visit www.gca.org.uk.

Pictured: The 2024 Worrall Cup winners, Tong Garden Centre with GCA Chairman Will Blake.