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Record June for plants but still 37% down year to date
Plant sales in June reached a new record for the month in the GTN Bestsellers Plants chart, 7% higher than the previous June record set in 2018...
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Neil and Nicci Gow to close Fresh @ Burcot Garden Centre
Neil and Nicci Gow are closing Fresh @ Burcot Garden Centre later this month after planning permission for a housing development had been negotiated between local planning officers and a developer...
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SOLEX - The show goes on, virtually of course!
Solex may not be happening at the NEC this week but it is happening virtually thanks to an interactive Solex website and the SOLEX SUN...
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Please Help To Make #FloralFriday A Celebration Of Outdoor Leisure!
Thank you to all those who once again joined the fun of #FloralFriday last week. A wonderful array of flowers, plants, bulbs, gardening products and floral shirts filled social media platforms, all helping to highlight the valuable work of Greenfingers Charity...
Read more and watch video
spoga+gafa suspends for 2020, changing to new date: 30 May to 1 June 2021
Following on from the news about Glee not taking place at the NEC in September, Koelnmesse have now announced that spoga+gafa will also not take place in Cologne at the start of September 2020...
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Fund for Westland accident victims family reaches £2,405
The industry fundraising effort to help the wife and young child of Phillip Moore who tragically died after an accident at Westland's Dungannon factory last month has almost reached half of it's target £5,000...
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Three new board members at the HTA
  
The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) has announced the appointment of three new board members as non-executive directors: Jane Lawler, Lawler Associates; Vicky Nuttall, The Garden Industry Manufacturer’s Association (GIMA); and Ken White, Frosts Landscape Construction...
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Duchess gets Britain blooming
What a great Ambassador the Duchess is for gardening. What a great Ambassador she is for children’s hospices and their gardens. Just like Greenfingers Charity that for the last 21 years has been creating therapeutic and peaceful gardens for the thousands of life-limited children and families that regularly make visits or spend time in these caring, peaceful yet vibrant havens for so many...
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Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
with all the news direct to your e-mail inbox...
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Pots and growing products drive sales to 44% up on last year for June
Garden Product sales volumes were 44% up on last year for June but that didn’t quite set a new record as the month total was 4% down on June 2015...
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Wow, what a catch up for Veg growing!
Wow, what a catch up for Veg growing! Being at home, no holidays and unrivalled TV coverage has meant...
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Keter Group to manufacture high-quality face shields at their factory in Cornwall
Keter anticipates that up to 4000 face shields will be made in Redruth every day...
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Growing media all time high for June
Despite all the trials and tribulations with the supply of growing media since re-opening sales have been through the roof and the GTN Bestsellers Top 50 volumes for June have reached an all time high for the month...
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Furniture and barbecue sales soar after garden centres re-open in May
Furniture and barbecues were the biggest sellers when garden centres re-opened in May (2020) according to the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) Barometer of Trade report. Sales were up 24.19% compared to the same month in 2019...
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Wild Bird Care sales grow too
Wild Bird Care is also benefitting from the steady flow of customers in garden centres with June volumes ending the month up 9% on last year and 2% up on 2017...
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The best of last week's
If you missed last week's GTN Xtra, below are the most-read stories...
Mixed plans for garden centre catering re-openings - UPDATED
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A straw poll of garden centre businesses about the re-opening of their restaurants and coffee shops has revealed that half are planning to partly re-open after lockdown restrictions are relaxed on Saturday July 4th, only a few are planning a full re-opening and a third are not intending to re-open their catering operations at all for the time being.
"We are reopening on the 4th and will try to keep our offer as close to what it was before. Looking at our Garden Centre takings I'm expecting demand for catering to be as high if not higher than last year..."
"It does not make economic sense for the moment, even given the extra draw to the site we know catering is to a garden centre and the resultant retail spend..."
"This is going to be harder than opening the garden centre as there are so many balls to keep up in the air at the same time. Overall we won’t be rushing..."
""I do not believe we will make any money during the first week but should at least cover our costs. Onwards and upwards!.."
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Read catering re-opening comments from: Altons, Baytree, Blue Diamond, BGC, Coolings, Dobbies, Ferndale, Fresh@Burcot, Fron Goch, Green Pastures, Henry Street, Klondyke, Millbrook, Perrywood, Planters, Raglan, Scotsdales, The Gardens Group & Groves
Glee and Pawexpo 2020 at the NEC will not take place this year
Glee virtual forum taking place on 15 and 16 September 2020
Hyve Group have announced changes to their 2020 show calendar. Glee and Pawexpo 2020 will offer a virtual forum this September and Glee and Pawexpo will return the the NEC on 14th-16th September 2021...
Read the full announcement
Fund created for Westland accident victims family has raised £1,645 so far
Ayrshire garden centre owner, Michael Hayes of Hayes Garden Land in Symington has set up a JustGiving page to raise money for the family of Philip Moore who died after a tragic accident at Westlands Dungannon factory. The appeal has raised £1,645 so far and as a result Michael has reset the target to £5,000...
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Flaming June – phew what a scorcher!
Garden centre volume sales for June are up year on year, with a week of sales data still to add. After just three weeks the GTN Bestsellers All Sales Index shows total volume sales to be 5% ahead of the whole month last year...
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June is a record for growing media – even with a week to go!
June sales of Growing Media have already set a new record for the month, and there’s still a week of sales data to go! Last week’s sales were 55% up on the same week last year reducing the overall year to date deficit for sales while centres were open to 22%.
Last week saw the most new entries into the GTN Bestsellers Growing Media chart we’ve seen for a long time:
- Melcourt All-Purpose Peat-Free Compost 50 litres was the highest new entry at No 26...
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The Duchess of Cambridge creates more gardening media coverage with visit to Childrens Hospice
Last week The Duchess of Cambridge joined families from East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) to plant a garden at The Nook, one of EACH’s purpose-built hospices near Norwich and media coverage of gardening and garden centres went into orbit again...
Read more and see pictures from the royal visit
#FloralFriday for Greenfingers supports Children's Hospice Week
Greenfingers Charity supporters across the UK took part in the thirteenth #FloralFriday to highlight the work it does in children’s hospices across the UK...
Read more and see GTN Xtra's gallery of #FloralFriday pics
Garden Centre Photo Tours
If you've missed one of our popular photo tours of garden centres then click on the links below:
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Haskins Garden Centre in Snowhill, Crawley, has opened its doors to customers following a 12-month refurbishment costing £15m...
Read more and see GTN Xtras photo tour of the new centre
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If the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us anything, it is that gardening has an important and valued role to play in the physical and mental health of many of us...
