Two stalwarts of the UK garden centre industry, Colin Squire and John Athwal have been awarded OBE's in the New Year's Honours list...

Rachel Doyle, owner of Arboretum Home & Garden Carlow and Arboretum Kilquade, Wicklow has recently won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Retail Excellence Awards in Killarney...

Peter "PJ" Davies, the boss of Bunnings Homebase in the UK is to take a 3 month period of leave in mid January...

Happy New Year to all our GTN and GTN Xtra readers.  After a busy 2017 we look forward to continuing to bring you all the news, views and sales ideas for the coming year.

We wish you all a great start to 2018. 

Read the current issue of GTN on-line which includes an interview with The Greatest Customer Service Team Leader, Justin Williams at Fron Goch, and thoughts for 2018 from various industry notables.

Woof! Newshound here…back and straining at the leash. So what’s cooking? The boss says people who’ve have had their ears to the walls at Wyevale GCs HQ reckon there’s something interesting about to break...

There was chat, there was cheer...and there was even a chance to whip things up with a bit of chanting...

Wooff woof! Yes it’s me, your industrious (and occasionally industrial) Newshound reporting for duty. You’ll be wondering if I found much to set the tail wagging at this week’s gathering of the supply chain at Fortress Wyevale. Read on...

 

The final 12 candidates in the Rising Stars class of 2017 have been announced...

The owners of a Hornsea Garden Centre have been fined for selling items which "posed a serious fire risk" to customers...

Wyevale Garden Centres has announced the successful refinancing of external bank debt facilities, which stabilises the capital structure enabling the leadership team to focus on delivering the new strategy, centred on building a better business for customers. Roger Mclaughlan, CEO of WGC said: “There’s been a significant shift in our financial priorities away from acquisitions and other capital intensive growth initiatives to investment in the core infrastructure, systems and processes..."

Wyevale Garden Centres appeared on a list published by the Daily Telegraph of what it says are some of the worst companies to work for in the UK, based on ratings on the job site Glassdoor...

Sad news has reached the GTN Xtra office of the death of Alistair Lorimer last week after a long battle with cancer...

Durston Garden Products have been Flying the Flag for a BUY BRITISH campaign and all for a very good reason. The company generally believes that as BREXIT negotiations continue to take shape; that now is the time to start shopping closer to home. Not only will you save yourself all the stress, and often logistical nightmare that goes with the lengthy process of  shopping overseas but that you will also find it can be much cheaper too.

The Bunnings Warehouse garden centre area at their pilot St Albans store provided plenty of new ways of displaying plants and products as well as some surprising new product lines and new suppliers to the UK market, when GTN Xtra made a visit yesterday...

Reports circulating online this week suggest that life is not getting any easier for Terra Firma’s Wyevale Garden Centres operation, which is facing re-structuring and re-financing after disappointing earnings. Pictured: WGC retail operations director David Anderson, who announced last week's changes.

Wyevale Garden Centres’ results published last week suggest that the problems facing parent Terra Firma as it strives to turn the 149-centre business around ahead of a planned sale are even greater that most people feared – but CEO Roger Mclaughlan says performance is improving...

What's going on in the world of Dobbies? GTN Newshound has been sniffing out a couple of juicy theories...

It was a record breaking Mothers Day weekend - official!  Over the course of yesterday and this morning GTN Xtra has been speaking to garden centres across the country and here is the feedback from: Green Pastures, Scotsdales, Caulders, Alton's, Millbrook, Haskins, Stewarts, Fron Goch, Raemoir, Bents, Hillview, Baytree, Cowells, Fresh @ Burcot, Perrywood and Creative Gardens...

The new CEO of Bunnings and Homebase parent company Wesfarmers has confessed to shareholders that the company had made a mistake by changing the Homebase management team and product ranges too quickly when it took over the UK chain last year...

The Horticultural Trades Association has just announced that Carol Paris, CEO, will be leaving the organisation at the end of April...

Nicholas Marshall announces new partnership live on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme

"In the whole of the UK the retail industry 40% of all sales are online and growing. Growing all the time. And yet in gardening it is tiny, almost irrelevant and therefore there is going to be a step change and I'm delighted to say that I can announce today that Ocado has very kindly agreed to link up with us (Dobbies) and to go on-line with us which is really exciting because they are one of the best British online companies..."

Dobbies Garden Centres Limited has announced that Nicholas Marshall is joining as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. He replaces John Cleland, who has left the business for family and personal reasons...



Pictured from left to right: Andrew Bracey, Chairman; Nicholas Marshall, CEO; and Graeme Jenkins, CFO.

Woof woof! No time to ‘paws’ for thought this week, my friends, as the pace quickens at Dobbies now that Mr Marshall is getting into his stride...

The Sunday Telegraph has revealed today that Terra Firma had to dip into its warchest to buy out £25m of bank debt related to the purchase of Wyevale Garden Centres in 2012...

The first Homebase store to undergo a Bunnings makeover opened for business in St Albans last week, welcoming customers with an Aussie-style 'sausage sizzle'...



Click the link for full story and more pictures.

You almost detect a tear in his eye as Scotts Miracle-Gro’s CEO Jim Hagedorn, admitting that the garden industry in the UK was more competititve than the US, told investors after last week's sell-off announcement: “This is a bit of a bittersweet moment for us...”

Gardman has reported a pre-tax loss of £1.5m for the year ending December 2016, mainly down to the exceptional costs of almost £2.3m associated with re-structuring following the previous year’s management buy-out, but earnings are up 50%...

The Blue Diamond Group has officially announced today the acquisition of its 20th garden centre at East Bridgford, near Nottingham...

ScottsMiracle-Gro announces binding offer from Exponent Private Equity LLP to acquire its International Consumer Business

Exponent Private Equity LLP today (Tuesday 2nd May 2017) made a binding and irrevocable offer to The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company to purchase SMG’s European and Australian operations.  The deal is being reported in the US as being worth $250m...

The sale of Yarnton Nurseries near Oxford to investors Newcore Capital Management, announced last Thursday, comes just a year before its owners, twin brothers Richard and Nigel Wallbridge (left), were due to celebrate the family business’s 50^th anniversary. The business, with its plethora of its concessions generates turnover of £15m...