The Old Railway Line Garden Centre (above) was awarded the title of Garden Centre of the Year in the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category at the GCA Wales & West region and Pugh’s Garden Village, Wenvoe (below) received the accolade in the Garden Centre (GC) category.
Iain Wylie, GCA Chief Executive, said: “Our Wales & West regional awards meeting was a huge success and we’d like to thank all those who attended. It was great to hear our GCA Inspector, Alyson Haywood’s feedback from her inspections on the centres and now our members can take this vital information back with them to their centres and make any changes needed.
“A big thank you must also go to Groves Nurseries, who were fantastic hosts for the evening.”
GCA Inspector Alyson was responsible for inspecting member garden centres in the Wales & West area.
She said: “It was a pleasure to once again inspect the garden centres in the Wales and West region. As always, the centres have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to achieve the standards attained and the presentation of awards to recognise these achievements are great motivators to continue improving.
“It was also great to see the number of centres highlighting and focusing on their environmental policies, the health benefits of gardening and the environmental benefits of plants.”
The Old Railway Line Garden Centre received five awards in total on the night including Garden Centre of the Year (DGC).
Huw Lewis, Finance Director at Old Railway Line Garden Centre, who is also the Area Chairman for Wales & West said: “It was great to see so many people in attendance from a variety of garden centres from across the Wales and West Area. My sincere thanks go to Charlie and the team at Groves Nurseries and Garden Centre for hosting the awards and for their hospitality throughout the evening. The food was especially good and was admired by all!
“Thanks also to Alyson, who provided us with a superb presentation. What really shone through was some of the great displays and merchandising that all the garden centres across the area had executed and how standards were constantly being improved across many areas of the garden centre offering. My thanks go to everyone who attended the awards and congratulations to all those that won awards.
“We are delighted to have won the Best Destination Garden Centre in the Wales and West region for 2022 and would like to thank our amazing team of staff who work so hard, every day to maintain standards and provide the best customer service that we can for our wonderful customers.”
Garden Centre of the Year (GC category) winners Pugh’s Garden Village, Wenvoe picked up four other awards on the night.
Nicola Pugh, Marketing and Operations Director for Pugh’s Garden Village, Wenvoe said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be awarded with so many fantastic awards within the garden centre category and the destination centre category. We are really in our infancy as GCA members but are proud to be part of a fantastic organisation within our industry.
“We could not be prouder of our teams who strive to increase standards consistently and have worked so hard over the past few years, they really do deserve these accolades. With some extremely worthwhile contenders, we are up against some of the best garden centres in the UK. We cannot wait to share these awards with our Pughs family of staff and customers and are looking forward to celebrating!”
The full results for the Wales & West region GCA area awards are as follows for the GC and DGC categories:
Garden Centre of the Year: The Old Railway Line Garden Centre (DGC) and Pugh’s Garden Village, Wenvoe (GC)
Customer Service Award for Best Customer Service: The Old Railway Line Garden Centre
Environment and Sustainability Award: The Old Railway Line Garden Centre
The Barton Grange Trophy for Commercial Innovation and Creativity: The Old Railway Line Garden Centre
The Dick Allen Award for Most Improved Centre: Webbs, Cheltenham
The Award for Catering Excellence for Best Garden Centre Restaurant: Cadbury Garden Centre (DGC) and joint winners Pugh’s Garden Village, Wenvoe and Webbs, Cheltenham (GC)
The GIMA Award for Best Garden Products Retailer: The Old Railway Line Garden Centre (DGC) and Pugh’s Garden Village, Wenvoe (GC)
The Indoor Lifestyle Award for Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer: Bernaville Nurseries (DGC) and Pugh’s Garden Village, Wenvoe (GC)
The Outdoor Living Award for Best Outdoor Living Retailer: Bernaville Nurseries (DGC) and joint winners Orchard Park Garden Centre, Pugh’s Garden Village, Wenvoe and Webbs, Cheltenham (GC)