Members of the Garden Centre Association in the Midlands region are celebrating after receiving awards during a presentation evening this week (Wednesday, July 5, 2023) at Gates Garden Centre.

The title of Garden Centre of the Year in the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category was awarded to Webbs of Wychbold (above) and the Garden Centre (GC) category award went to Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne.

Peter Burks, CEO at the GCA, said: “Our second regional awards meeting of the summer was a great success. We’d like to say a huge ‘congratulations’ to all of our winners, they all thoroughly deserve the recognition and are a testament to us. We’re also very grateful to the team at Gates Garden Centre in Leicestershire for hosting our event this time around. They were marvellous hosts!

“On behalf of all the attendees we’d like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to our inspector, Phil McCann, for visiting each centre and providing extensive feedback on what he found. This really was invaluable to our members and is one of the main benefits of our membership.

“New for 2023, we’ve introduced an award for houseplants. We also did a Best Planteria award on the night and will do the same at every award event this summer, as although the top 10 highest scorers get a second visit to determine who wins the overall Ruxley Rose competition, which is announced at our conference in January, the area winners haven’t been recognised in previous years.”

Phil conducted surprise visits to centres across a 12-week period.

The full results for the Midlands region GCA area awards are as follows for the GC and DGC categories:

Garden Centre of the Year: Webbs of Wychbold (DGC) and Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne (GC)

Customer Service Award for Best Customer Service: Gates Garden Centre

Environment and Sustainability Award sponsored by Savills: Planters Garden Centre, Tamworth

The Barton Grange Trophy for Commercial Innovation and Creativity: Webbs of Wychbold

The Dick Allen Award for Most Improved Centre: Stratford Garden Centre

The Award for Catering Excellence for Best Garden Centre Restaurant: Webbs of Wychbold (DGC) and Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne (GC)

The GIMA Award for Best Garden Products Retailer: Planters Garden Centre, Tamworth (DGC) and Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne (GC)

The Outdoor Living Award for Best Outdoor Living Retailer: Gates Garden Centre (DGC) and Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne (GC)

The Indoor Lifestyle Award for Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer: East Bridgford Garden Centre (DGC) and Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne (GC)

Houseplants: Webbs of Wychbold (DGC) and Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne (GC)

Best Planteria (Ruxley Rose): Pacific Nurseries (DGC) and Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne (GC).

For further information, visit www.gca.org.uk.