The sixth little dobbies opened its doors to the people of Cheltenham last week.

“On one of the key shopping streets in the centre of town and withing close proximity to other retailers who have a similar customer profile to what we look for is one of our key criteria” said Graeme Jenkins Dobbies CEO who was present at the opening.

The philosophy behind the concept of little dobbies includes:

• seeing little dobbies as a genuine profit contributor to the overall group
• helping build brand awareness of the Dobbies name where other dobbies outlets are located (the new Cheltenham store is around 10 miles from the anchor store they opened just before Christmas 2022 near Tewksbury and 10 miles from their Gloucester store [the previous Blooms store taken over in the Wyevale sell off.)
• developing an earlier awareness of plants, gardening and horticulture amongst their target audience that 25/35 year old age group.

General Manager of the new store, Kayleigh Wheeler, has built the store team around her over recent weeks. A team of experienced horticulturalists, plant enthusiasts and a couple of ‘first job’ young people are amongst the team nine to operate the 7 day a week outlet. Kayleigh, an experienced retailer with a background in high street fashion retail management has been with Dobbies for around 18 months and is passionate about getting the right people with an inspiring attitude to their product into the team rather than their product knowledge, she adds: “Dobbies have developed excellent inhouse training for all their team, and with the right attitude, product knowledge can be learnt by us all, we are about giving customers confidence in their own ability through ours”.

A queue of potential customers formed prior to the ribbon cutting ceremony and within a short space of time trading was brisk through the tills as customers made their purchases from the energetic displays of enticing, fresh plant material, care and maintenance and gifting product instore.

The store was buzzing, and a good location should see the latest little dobbies soon make its mark in the local market place.

See our photo tour of the new store here and read more in the next issue of GTN Magazine