GTN’s search for the UK’s top garden centre Christmas teams is under way. The Greatest Christmas Awards aim to reward the most important ingredient of a garden centre Christmas – outstanding teamwork...
With Christmas never so important to the garden industry as it is this year after a season most would rather forget, garden centres have been pulling out all the stops to make sure festive sales recoup turnover lost this summer.
Reports reach the GTN offices daily of great results from the Christmas campaign in many parts of the UK. Clearly their efforts are paying dividends.
So it’s time to launch GTN’s search for the UK’s top garden centre Christmas teams. The Greatest Christmas Awards – now in their fourth year – aim to recognise the importance to businesses of their festive offerings and to reward the outstanding teamwork that has made the garden centre Christmas the envy of other retail sectors.
The awards are open to all garden centres, regardless of size, and you can read about all the categories to enter in this newsletter. You can enter any, or all, by sending a nomination email to: trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk.
There are three new categories this year:
The Greatest Festive Catering Team
The Greatest Christmas Sizzle
The Greatest Christmas Houseplants Team
Hit the appropriate links on the opening page for details.
You can also invite your customers to vote for you in The Greatest Garden Centre at Christmas Team award. The link will take you to a special download for your Public Voting Pack materials in digital PDF format.
Suppliers get their recognition, too. We’ll be asking every garden centre we visit to nominate their Christmas Supplier of the Year.
Judging gets under way this month and will be completed by early December. Closing date for entries and nominations is close of play on Monday 26 November.
Good luck!
The Greatest Christmas Awards are organised in association with Harrogate Christmas & Gift, the first major festive and gift trade show of the year. Click the link on the opening page to find out more about the event.
The Greatest Garden Centre Festive Catering Team is a brand new category in The Greatest Christmas Awards – and it’s designed to find the garden centre where the coffee shop and restaurant play a full part in the Christmas experience...
The Greatest Garden Centre Festive Catering Team This is a brand new category in The Greatest Christmas Awards – and it’s designed to find the garden centre that has made the coffee shop and restaurant as much part of the Christmas experience as the rest of the centre.
We know that excellent catering is now a powerful draw for many garden centre customers. Standards have risen dramatically in recent years, with buildings and surroundings, food offering and service that are the equal of – and often better than – other catering sectors. But even the best garden centre coffee shop or restaurant needs a little extra TLC at Christmas time to get customers into the festive mood.
Among the features the judges will be looking for are:
Festive themes and ideas that help to sell your Christmas products
Good directional signage to the grotto, Christmas displays and trees area
Good promotion of festive offers and events
Well-presented Christmas fare menu
Imaginative use of light and sound
And above all…staff who are fully in the Christmas spirit!
We are proud to have Vision Commercial Kitchens as sponsors of this important new category. Vision have helped many UK garden centres to launch, enhance or re-fit their catering operations, offering everything from an initial expert consultation to a full installation. They pride themselves on helping garden centres make the right decision for their businesses.
The Greatest Christmas Sizzle Cooking the Christmas turkey or joint on a barbecue is a hot new trend in outdoor leisure. This new feature of The Greatest Christmas Awards recognises the potential for garden centre sales...
The Greatest Christmas Sizzle Cooking the Christmas turkey or joint on a barbecue is a hot new trend in outdoor leisure – as a number of UK garden centres have already realised.
We’re looking for the garden centre that has fully embraced the idea in a way that helps to sell barbecues and food hall produce – and perhaps even hot turkey sandwiches – at the same time.
Not all centres will be able to stage a live in-store cookery demonstration – but an imaginative static display could work just as well.
This could be just the idea to give you a local competitive edge this Christmas – and our judges will be looking out for centres who do it expertly. You can also self-nominate in this category. You’re always been urged to ‘sell the sizzle’ – now’s your chance!
We are delighted to have SOLEX AT THE NEC as sponsors of the first ever Greatest Christmas Sizzle Award. LOFA’s summer outdoor and indoor leisure event is now an established fixture in the trade show calendar, bringing together the world’s leading garden and leisure furniture and barbecue brands under one roof. The show moves from Telford to the NEC, Birmingham, next year (8-10 July 2013).
The Greatest Christmas Houseplants Team Garden centres can beat the High Street hands down for houseplant sales at Christmas We’re looking for the very best...
The Greatest Christmas Houseplants Team Christmas is the biggest opportunity of the year for houseplant sales – an area in which garden centres can beat the High Street hands down. There are some outstanding Christmas houseplant teams out there – and we’re looking for the very best in this new category of The Greatest Awards.
This is about great plants, brilliant presentation, creative added value – and effective in-store marketing, serviced by knowledgable, helpful staff.
If that sounds like you, nominate your team today by sending an email to trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk by the deadline, close of play on Monday 26 November.
The Greatest Christmas Display Team For visual merchandising teams, Christmas is all about the ‘wow factor’ – displays that stop people in their tracks AND inspire them to spend...
The Greatest Christmas Display Team For visual merchandising teams, Christmas is an opportunity to get seriously creative. It’s all about ‘wow factor’ – displays that not only stop people in their tracks but encourage them to spend. This tricky balance is not always achieved – but the centres who do it best are brilliant examples that inspire the entire industry.
The Greatest Christmas Display Team category is not restricted to large destination garden centres. Smaller centres who have used their team’s resources to produce stunning results are just as valued and will be judged accordingly.
To nominate your Christmas display team, send an email to trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk by the deadline of Monday 26 November, and enter DISPLAY TEAM ENTRY in the subject line.
The sponsors of this category are Snowtime, popular suppliers of Christmas lights, fibre optics, illuminated décor, artificial trees and floral products. In 1995 they pioneered the supply of fibre-optic Christmas trees to the UK market.
The Greatest Christmas Grotto Garden centres grottos generate impressive footfall and revenue. This award recognises the expertise of the teams who plan, design, install and operate them...
The Greatest Christmas Grotto We know how proud garden centres are of their grottos. They are a magnet for families, generating impressive additional footfall as well as revenue. This award is designed to recognise the expertise of the teams who plan, design, install and operate the Christmas grotto and will include ratings for marketing, the booking system, queue management – and, of course, the experience. Yes, our judges will want to meet Santa himself!
You can self-nomnate in this category by sending an email to: trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk by close of play on Monday 26 November.
We are delighted to have the support of Kaemingk, leading suppliers of festive products, as sponsors of this category. Kaemingk, whose new showroom in Holland opens early next month, are acknowledged trend leaders in their field and will be exhibiting at Harrogate Christmas & Gift in January (stand M02-04)
Birkacre won Gold in the public voting category for large garden centres in 2011
The Greatest Garden Centre Team at Christmas This Award is decided purely by public voting. Register today for your all-important voting pack...
The Greatest Garden Centre Team at Christmas This category is all about the most important people in your business – the customers! It's decided purely by public voting. If you have a loyal, satisfied customer base, you're in with a chance of lifting the title – possibly the one that matters most of all.
Our Public Voting Pack, contains the posters, leaflets and voting forms you need to get your in-store campaign under way to generate customer votes. It is available to download in PDF format so you can print your own materials. To register for a pack, send an email to: trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk
The voting forms allow customers to tell us what they think of you – and if that isn’t the best piece of market research you’ll get this year, we don’t know what is!
If you have any problems downloading the pdf's of posters and voting slips please e-mail trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call 07973 504214.
We are pleased to welcome the Arena Group as sponsors of The Greatest Christmas Awards public voting category. Arena supply installations like skating rinks and pop-up catering structures for leading garden centres and public attractions.
Although you are now in full Christmas mode, reaping the benefits of wise product choices made earlier in the year, you are probably also taking note of buying trends and planning ahead for the 2013 festive season.
A not-to-be-missed date for your diary is Harrogate Christmas & Gift (13-16 January 2013) - a fantastic opportunity to see exciting new product launches months before the crowds arrive at trade fairs in the spring.
Harrogate is one of the fastest growing shows in its sector, catering not only for Christmas (with probably the greatest selection of trees, lights and festive decorations in the UK) but novelties and gifts for every occasion from Hallowe’en and Mother's Day right through to furniture, ornaments, flowers and giftware for the home and garden.
In fact, Harrogate Christmas & Gift has seen a steady increase in all gift and homeware ranges, attracting discerning buyers from large department stores, novelty and souvenir shops, traditional gift stores, as well as DIY stores, garden centres, museums, country estates, castles and farm shops. Be sure to join them in 2013!
Glee is the only UK trade show that gives garden retailers the opportunity to buy across all product categories under one roof. Sectors covered include garden care, landscape and garden design, outdoor leisure, nursery and plants, home and gift, retail support, catering and speciality food.
Glee is organised by the i2i Events Group and is held annually at the NEC. Make a note of next year's Glee dates - Monday 16–Wednesday 18 September 2013.
Kaemingk, leading suppliers of festive products to UK garden retailers, open their new showroom in Holland early next month. Special open days on which you can preview their collections for Christmas 2013 will run from 5 to 19 December. Kaemingk are acknowledged trend leaders in their field and will be exhibiting at Harrogate Christmas & Gift in January (stand M02-04)
Premier Decorations are leading designers and importers of Christmas lighting, trees and decorations; garden lighting and outdoor living products; and Hallowe'en products and party decorations. Garden centres voted them Greatest Christmas Supplier of the Year in 2010 and 2011. Their products regularly feature in the GTN Bestsellers Christmas Top 50. www.premierdec.com
SOLEX AT THE NEC is LOFA’s summer outdoor and indoor leisure event, now an established fixture in the trade show calendar, bringing together the world’s leading garden and leisure furniture and barbecue brands under one roof. The show moves from Telford to the NEC, Birmingham, next year (8-10 July 2013).
Vision Commercial Kitchens have helped many UK garden centres to launch, enhance or re-fit their catering operations, offering everything from an initial expert consultation to a full installation. They pride themselves on helping garden centres make the right decision for their businesses. The kitchens at the fabulous catering operation at the award-winning Barton Grange Garden Centre at Brock - the Riverside and Willows restaurants - were supplied by Vision.
The sponsors of this category are Snowtime, leading suppliers of Christmas lights, fibre optics, illuminated décor, artificial trees and floral products. In 1995 they pioneered the supply of fibre-optic Christmas trees to the UK market.
Snowtime have the UK’s broadest and most comprehensive range of high-quality artificial trees. The hottest Christmas product in many years is their range of Thomas Kinkade-designed fibre optic tapestries, which are licensed to Snowtime and were introduced two years ago (example below). Many retailers had sold out by the end of September. There are some cheap copies on the market but it's the signed originals that are selling.
The Arena ice rink installation at Van Hage, Great Amwell in 2011
The Arena Group has a 250-year history supplying specialist infrastructure to live sporting, music and public events. In 2012 clients included The Open, Wimbledon Championships, X Factor, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the event of the year, The London 2012 Olympic Games.
Arena Group provides turnkey solutions to install ice rinks and pop up cafes at Garden Centres, building partnerships with clients to create temporary event environments that are fine-tuned to reflect their aspirations. Visit http://www.arenagroup.com/index.php/products/ice_rinks for further information. Follow Arena on twitter @arena_group.
The Greatest Christmas Awards Party Book your tickets for the finale to The Greatest Christmas Awards for 2012 – the magnificent awards party to be be held at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, on 13 January...
The Greatest Christmas Awards Party The finale to The Greatest Christmas Awards for 2012 is the awards party to be be held at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, on 13 January, the first evening of Harrogate Christmas and Gift Fair.
Combine your buying trip to the fair with a great night out. You’ll be in good company – and if your centre’s team has entered, you might even receive an award.
Tickets for the evening are now on sale. They are selling really fast for what has gained a reputation as The Greatest Christmas Party Ever! So to guarantee your place, make a booking online below or call 01733 775700.
A superb meal, the company of industry friends and colleagues – and dancing to a great band. Thanks to our generous sponsors, we've also got some great raffle prizes lined up, including a barbecue valued at £1,000 from Weber.
Proceeds from the raffle will go to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, helping to grant wishes for seriously ill children.
See you there!
Prices include VAT
The Greatest Christmas Awards 2013 - Tickets
The Greatest Christmas Awards Party is generously sponsored by Premier Decorations, designers and importers of Christmas lighting, trees and decorations; garden lighting and outdoor living products; and Hallowe'en products and party decorations. Garden centres voted them Greatest Christmas Supplier of the Year in 2010 and 2011.
Harrogate Christmas & Gift (13-16 January 2013) is a fantastic opportunity to see exciting new product launches months before the crowds arrive at trade fairs in the spring...
Although you are now in full Christmas mode, reaping the benefits of wise product choices made earlier in the year, you are probably also taking note of buying trends and planning ahead for the 2013 festive season.
A not-to-be-missed date for your diary is Harrogate Christmas & Gift (13-16 January 2013) - a fantastic opportunity to see exciting new product launches months before the crowds arrive at trade fairs in the spring.
Harrogate is one of the fastest growing shows in its sector, catering not only for Christmas (with probably the greatest selection of trees, lights and festive decorations in the UK) but novelties and gifts for every occasion from Hallowe’en and Mother's Day right through to furniture, ornaments, flowers and giftware for the home and garden.
In fact, Harrogate Christmas & Gift has seen a steady increase in all gift and homeware ranges, attracting discerning buyers from large department stores, novelty and souvenir shops, traditional gift stores, as well as DIY stores, garden centres, museums, country estates, castles and farm shops. Be sure to join them in 2013!
