Hard on the heels of completing the aquisition of it's 140th garden centre, Terra Firma announced last night a new centralised retail operations structure for The Garden Centre Group with a senior leadership team of directors and managers with experience from other retailers including Marks & Spencer, Pret a Manger, EAT, Matalan, Asda Walmart, Budgens and Londis working alongside existing TGCG retail managers.

The announcement in full reads:

The Garden Centre Group announces centralised retail operations structure

1 April 2014 – The Garden Centre Group is pleased to announce its new centralised retail operations structure. Under the new structure, retail operations will be led by six Regional Operations Directors, each supported by Area Managers at the sub-regional level. Regional Operations Directors will report to Colin Hughes, Retail Operations Director for the Group.

The reorganisation streamlines the reporting structure within the Group, moving from twelve geographical groups to six peer groups of similar size and product range. In addition, to improve integration and operations across groups, the team includes a Head of Integration Operations and Central Operations Manager.

Colin Hughes, Retail Operations Director, said: “The new structure has been designed to improve communications across our current regions and centres, share learning and create synergies between similar centres and peer groups. This reorganisation will drive improved commercial performance, and ensure that appropriate levels of management resource are available in the right places and to support the right activities. I am pleased to have such a strong team of experienced retailers, horticulturalists and leaders to support our retail function across our estate.”

The senior leadership team within the Retail structure includes:

- Retail Operations Director – Colin Hughes

- Central Operations Manager – Jeremy Byfleet

- Head of Integration Operations – James Cockrell

- Regional Operations Director – Chris Brannigan

- Regional Operations Director – Symon Wooldridge

- Regional Operations Director – Stefan Swiatyj

- Regional Operations Director – Daniel Webb

- Regional Operations Director – David Longmore

- Regional Operations Director – Melanie Evans

About The Garden Centre Group

The Garden Centre Group, the nation’s largest group of garden centres, has 140 centres across the country, including Blooms Garden Centres, Country Gardens and Wyevale Garden Centres. Ninety per cent of The Garden Centre Group's plant stock is British-grown, and much of this stock is grown in their own nurseries. The Garden Centre Group employs more than 5,000 staff and runs its own gardening membership club, The Gardening Club, which has more than 2 million members. For more information about The Garden Centre Group, visit www.thegardencentregroup.co.uk

Retailers can take advantage of margins of 50% with Town & Country’s latest Clip Strip Gloves Promotion featuring some of the brand’s best-selling glove products.

Each promotional deal comprises six Clip Strip displays featuring a total of 72 pairs of gloves - 12 pairs each of the Master Gardener, Aquasure, Classics, Taskmaster, Weedmaster and Essentials - in a mix of men’s and ladies sizes.

The cost of each deal is just £114.96, with the RRP on the gloves ranging from £2.99 to £5.99.

This offers retailers excellent margin and profit potential and provides them with a collection of gloves suitable for all the major gardening tasks and guaranteed to sell as the season gets into full swing.

Clip Strip merchandising displays are the ideal format for impulse purchases as they can be positioned at numerous, strategic locations around the store to provide consumers with quick and easy access to products they might otherwise have overlooked.

For further details, get in touch with your Town & Country sales representative or contact Town & Country on 01530 830990 or email sales@townandco.com

Notcutts will celebrate the opening of its brand new Tunbridge Wells garden centre in Pembury on Friday, April 11. The centre harnesses the natural surroundings of the site and places gardening and plants at the heart of the shopping experience, reflecting the brand’s rich horticultural heritage and expertise.

The new state-of-the-art garden centre encompasses all the outdoor inspiration green-fingered gardeners could need, from quality plants and shrubs to beautiful garden furniture and accessories. Plants are central to what Notcutts is all about and the new centre features an extensive canopy-covered planteria area as well as an outdoor area for customers to explore too. Inside, customers will also find opulent outdoor living displays, sundries, a gift shop and much more.  

The centre also features a 190 seat restaurant called ‘The Kitchen’, inspired by market stalls and street food, serving locally sourced produce. It also houses a separate food department complete with local butcher Ian Chatfield, a brand new children’s play area and a pet department.

The new centre spans across 25,000 square foot and includes an on-trend ‘living wall’ that greets customers at the entrance and rear of the building. It also features a bandstand area for demonstrations and has increased disabled access. Alongside these developments, the new complex is eco-friendly, hosting solar panels, movement sensor taps to save water and a low energy ambient lighting system, amongst other initiatives. This combination of sleek design with local, rustic features is designed to create a friendly and earthy feel that inspires green-fingered enthusiasts to think creatively about their own space and lifestyle. 

To commemorate the opening of the new centre, Caroline Notcutt, non-executive director and great grand-daughter of the founders at Notcutts, will be cutting the ribbon and welcoming press, staff and customers to the store on Friday 11^th April.

A fun-packed series of events is then set to follow for customers over the opening celebration weekend on Saturday 12^th and Sunday 13^th April, including the jazz band Mardi Gras Jazz Band on the Saturday, the Swinging Little Big Band on Sunday along with face painting, food tastings, bird of prey displays and other activities.

Further information, or to view a Google virtual tour of the new centre, going live on the opening weekend, visit notcutts.co.uk/tunbridgewells.

Queen Alexander College, a National College for Learners with Disabilities in the West Midlands, is opening it's garden centre to the public.

Umberslade Nurseries, located in Selly Oak, was previously occupied by the Birmingham Rathbone charity.  The site measures just over an acre in size and consists of five large polytunnels and a 24 ft greenhouse.  A range of plants and garden sundries are available to buy in the retail shop.

As part of this project QAC students enjoy regular group visits to the site to tend to the plants and shrubs plus carry out general garden maintenance. 

Students will also have the opportunity to produce garden items such as bird boxes, feeders and trugs – all to be sold in the retail shop.

Website: www.qac.ac.uk 

Lighting lines were the highlight of this week’s GTN Bestsellers Garden Products chart with Gardman experiencing good sales.

Their LED Light String Starlight (50 lights) was the highest re-entry, jumping straight back into the chart at No 2.

The same company’s Solar Ice Orb Border Light was also the highest climber, moving up 24 places to No 26.

The highest new entry last week was Spear & Jackson Kew Bypass Secateurs at No 7.

Scotts Evergreen Complete made it to the top spot for the first time after a good week of sales for Lawncare.

To get the full GTN Bestsellers charts for this week and every week for a year, subscribe to the GTN Bestsellers weekly Top 50 volume sales tracking service.  For just £145 you'll receive the only independent weekly gardening retail sales intelligence direct to your desk via Royal Mail.  To subscribe contact karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk on 01733 775700 or buy your subscription on-line using the link below:

An award winning garden from RHS Flower Show Tatton Park that was donated to a local hospice by members of the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) has been officially opened.

The Precious Resources Garden, designed by Paul Hervey Brookes, was moved to a new home at Willow Wood Hospice, in Ashton-under-Lyne and was opened by Blue Peter gardener, Chris Collins last week.

Willow Wood has been through an extensive refurbishment of the land around the Hospice and their gardens play a major role in their all round holistic care for patients and their families.  The plant material from the Tatton show garden will add great benefit to the new landscaped garden, designed by Sophie Cordingley and built by APL member Foxcroft Landscapes.

Originally built by a collaboration of the founder members of the APL North West Cluster Group – Andy Kirman of Kirman Design based in Warrington, Steve Foxcroft and Simon Ford of Foxcroft Landscapes based in Leigh, Stephen Hargreaves of Seasonal Landscapes, based in Thornton Cleveleys and Mick Topp of Vision Landscapes, based in Southport, the garden won a Silver medal and the People’s Choice Award at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park last week.

Chris Collins said:  “It  was a  big  honour  for  me to  attend and  open  the  new  garden at  Willow  Wood  Hospice .  I  am  fortunate  to  be  aware of the amazing  work   that  is  being  undertaken  there  and  the  positivity  of  those  all involved  bring  to this  special  place . As  a  gardener I  fully understand  the ability  of  nature  to  bring  happiness into  our  lives  and  thus  feel  the  garden  is  a  superb  addition to  Willow  Wood .  I  believe  it  will make a  valuable  contribution  to all who  are  involved  at  the  hospice for  many  years  to  come.”

The hospice provides specialist Palliative Care to those suffering with life-threatening illnesses. The Hospice first opened its doors for Day Hospice patients in May 1999 and for In-Patients the following September. Since then, the Hospice has cared for more than 2,000 patients and their families.

It's time to enter your teams into the 2014 Greatest Awards – and we have some different and exciting new opportunities for your this year.

With the event taking place alongside SOLEX, the foremost outdoor leisure exhibition in the UK, we have introduced some new categories for the garden centre sales and display teams to get their teeth into...

• The Greatest BBQ Sales Team
• The Greatest Outdoor Furniture Sales Team
• The Greatest Garden Decor and Lighting Sales Team

Popular categories also available to enter are:

• The Greatest Planteria Sales Team
• The Greatest Garden Care Sales Team
• The Greatest Home Interiors Display Team
• The Greatest Garden Centre Merchandising Team

To register free for any or all of these categories, email trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

The Greatest Awards 2014 are produced in association with SOLEX...

and sponsored by Weber

As part of its on-going initiative to create top quality soft drinks for adults, Cawston has developed a four-strong RTD range in 330ml glass bottle format.

The range is designed to exploit a gap Cawston sees in the soft drink market – high-quality drinks that are all-natural, not made from concentrated juice or artificial flavours and which appeal to adults.

Three of the flavours, Sparkling Apple, Sparkling Ginger Beer and Sparkling Lemon & Lime have won Great Taste Awards, while Sparkling Apple & Rhubarb won The Grocer’s Product of the Year in 2013.

The latter is a unique flavour in the market and sees Cawston use the finest rhubarb balanced with pressed apple juice and sparkling water to temper the vegetable’s distinctive, fruity, ‘tang’.  It has an impressive juice content of 40%.

With summer on its way, Sparkling Lemon & Lime is another great choice for any garden centre café.  It’s a punchy and defiantly ‘adult’ take on a traditional lemonade with none of the usual over-powering sweetness. It features Sicilian lemons blended with pressed apple juice and sparkling water, gently rounded off with a dash of lime juice.  Total juice content is a healthy 25%; comparing favourably with rival lemonade drinks that rarely reach above 18% and use concentrated, not pressed, juice.

Also, as with all Cawston juices and drinks, the apple juice in both drinks comes from fruit that has been pressed within 48hrs of being picked, thereby ensuring maximum freshness. 

The bottles have an RRP from £1.69 and are available via fine food wholesalers such as Cotswolds Fayre, Hider Foods and other regional wholesalers.

Simon Roberts, Cawston’s Sales Manager for garden centres, told GTN Food Xtra:

“All four drinks are perfect for adults looking for interesting, high-quality and all-natural alternatives to the soft-drinks out there. They are uniquely placed in the fact that we use high percentages of pressed juice compared to a lot of other brands that scrimp on the juice content and just use concentrate.  The glass bottles are perfect for this market where they offer consumers a really satisfying and sophisticated soft drink option!”

Cawston is offering fifty readers of GTN Food Xtra who are café owners/managers a complimentary case (x12 330ml bottles) of Apple & Rhubarb.  Just be one of the first fifty to email: simon.roberts@cawstonpress.com with ‘GTN Food Xtra Offer’ in the subject line.

For those cafes unable or unwilling to sell glass bottled product, Cawston has also just introduced two new 330ml canned drinks too – featuring lighter blends of juice and sparkling water.  Cloudy Apple and Rhubarb are again all-natural and made from pressed juice and not concentrate.  

Website:  www.cawstonpress.com 

• Midlands, East Anglia & Northern Home Counties
• South East & London, including Hampshire & Sussex

Arthur Bowers Organic Stable Manure (50 litres) jumped 25 places to the top of last week’s GTN Bestsellers Growing Media chart.

The same company also boasted the highest re-entry in the New Horizon Organic Growbag, the highest new entry in Landscape Bark (100 litres), and the highest climber in Seed and Cutting Compost (20 litres).

Other good performing products included Scotts Levington Tomorite Giant Planter with Seaweed, and Gem Cambark Chunky Chip Bark (70 litres).

To get the full GTN Bestsellers charts for this week and every week for a year, subscribe to the GTN Bestsellers weekly Top 50 volume sales tracking service.  For just £145 you'll receive the only independent weekly gardening retail sales intelligence direct to your desk via Royal Mail.  To subscribe contact karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk on 01733 775700 or buy your subscription on-line using the link below:

Two tomato plants caught the eye in the GTN Bestsellers Veg-2-Gro Chart last week – Quantil Tomato Beefmaster (8cm) moved up 32 places to No 3, making it the highest climber; and Quantil Tomato Tumbler (8cm) jumped into the Top 50 at No 22 to be the highest new entry.

Meanwhile, the highest re-entry was Quantil Carrot Chantenay at No 9.

Courgette plants also had a good sales week to return to the chart while Suttons James Wong Homegrown Revolution Seeds look to be performing well for a second year.

To get the full GTN Bestsellers charts for this week and every week for a year, subscribe to the GTN Bestsellers weekly Top 50 volume sales tracking service.  For just £145 you'll receive the only independent weekly gardening retail sales intelligence direct to your desk via Royal Mail.  To subscribe contact karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk on 01733 775700 or buy your subscription on-line using the link below:

Every week GTN receives and analyses epos data from a number of UK garden centres to produce the GTN Bestsellers charts and weekly bestsellers sales tips.

The full charts which provide useful insight into product sales peaks, new trends and new link sales opportunities are published in the weekly GTN Xtra printed newsletter.

As the year goes on we give sales volume comparisons with 2012 as well as 2013 to allow your teams to see variations over a three year period.

Access is by subscription only.  For £145.00 per year you and your team can have access to the most upto date gardening sales analysis that has already helped many UK garden centres increase their sales.  To subscribe call 01733 775700, e-mail karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or buy on-line using the link below.

Highlights of the GTN Garden Products Bestsellers chart for last week are here

Highlights of the GTN Veg-2-Gro Products Bestsellers chart for last week are here

Highlights of the GTN Growing Media Bestsellers chart for last week are here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts seriously improve the business of our subscribers.  Invest 15 minutes each week in improving your sales using the GTN Bestsellers charts and your turnover and customer satisfaction will improve too.