Wyevale Garden Centres today (Tuesday) announced it has acquired Trelawney Ashford Garden Centre from David Danning and David Symons. GTN Xtra revealed at the weekend that the sale was due to go through today.

Located in Barnstaple, North-West Devon, the 28,000 square foot garden centre will complement the Company’s existing coverage in the region and bring the size of the WGC estate to 142 centres. The centre will be renamed Ashford Barnstaple, a Wyevale Garden Centre.

Kevin Bradshaw, Chief Executive of Wyevale Garden Centres, said: “With a strong heritage going back more than forty years, Ashford’s garden centre is renowned for the excellent quality of its plants and products as well as its welcoming family atmosphere.

"This acquisition supports our strategy to grow our business by acquiring exceptionally high-quality garden centres in the UK, and we are absolutely delighted to welcome Trelawney Ashford’s customers and employees to our business.”

The site, which was bought by Trelawney in 2005, is a purpose-built centre with beautiful views over the Taw estuary and attractive positioning near coastal areas with a strong customer base.

Trelawney’s David Danning said: “It has been our pleasure to own this centre and to learn how to manage a multi-site business as we have expanded Trelawney.

"However, our plans for the future have changed over the last year and the timing of an offer for the site came along at the right time for us and for the business.

"Investment from Wyevale Garden Centres will create opportunities that will be of great benefit to our employees, and I would like to thank our staff for all they have done for us over the last nine years.”

Trelawney Wadebridge was sold to the Blue Diamond group last month.

The names of the five finalists of the Garden Centre Association Rising Stars Programme, sponsored by Westland Horticulture, have been announced.

Kirsty Clark (Perrywood GC), Matthew Fay (Stewarts Garden-Lands, Christchurch), Lisa Waim (Haskins Snowhill), Hannah Mason (Chessington) and Cerys Williams (Perrywood) have all made it through to the final challenge, where they will present at the GCA Conference in Chester on 26 January. The overall winner will be chosen by conference delegates.

The results are the culmination of an eight month programme in which candidates attended three merchandising Masterclasses run by IBBIS director and training facilitator Ian Boardman. Thanks to Ian’s efforts, many of the Rising Stars went on to increase sales in their departments by keeping hotspots fresh, creating clear signage and organising themed displays throughout the year.

Ian Boardman said: “All the Rising Stars who took part in the programme were top notch and I’d like to thank every single one of them for their efforts and praise them for the progress they have made. The results of their achievements in their workplace prove they are all stars in their own right!”

Keith Nicholson, Marketing Director for Westland Horticulture said: “On behalf of Westland I’d like to congratulate the Rising Stars finalists for getting this far. We now face a very exciting GCA conference final where delegates will get the chance to vote for the winner – Rising Star of the Year 2014.”

GCA chief executive Iain Wylie said: “The five finalists have some really exciting presentations prepared for delegates. It is always the highlight of the GCA conference and this year will definitely not disappoint.”

Twenty-eight of the most aspiring young representatives of the horticultural industry kicked off the Rising Stars Programme earlier this year.

The original list of 28 was whittled down to 10 in September before the final five were chosen.

GTN Xtra will be featuring a spotlight on all five over the coming weeks.

Lighting products are the star performers in the GTN Bestsellers garden centre EPoS data this week. 

Candles show the biggest sales growth in the GTN Christmas Products Top 50 and garden lighting lines dominate the GTN Garden Products chart, making up 43% of the Top 50 sales volume.

As customers’ thoughts move from outdoors to indoors, garden centres are maximising on this with great home and gift departments and the unique offering of indoor, Christmas and outdoor lighting.

All year, lighting lines have been popular with garden centre customers as the range of choice has grown and prices fallen to attractive levels.

In Dutch garden centres last year we saw lighting departments as big as gift departments – perhaps that should be happening in UK centres now, not just part of garden sundries and part of home and part of Christmas.

With such high purchase interest there must be an opportunity to sell more of lighting if brilliantly merchandised together.

We’re on the look out for great lighting displays during our visits for The Greatest Christmas Awards – extra points will be scored where there is cross merchandising of Christmas, indoor and garden lighting.

GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year...

• Garden Products – down 5%
• Xmas Products – down 22%
• Growing Media – up 5%
• All items index – down 14%

If you would like to subscribe to GTN Bestsellers email karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

Seven out of the Top 10 products in the GTN Bestsellers Garden Products chart are lighting lines this week, and 14 in all of the Top 50.

Compared to the same week, last year the number of garden lighting products sold is up by a staggering 149%.

With many garden lighting lines outselling Christmas lighting lines at the moment perhaps garden lighting should be positioned closer to Christmas and gifts where footfall is highest – or even at the entrance to your restaurant.

Star performers include:

• Smart Solar’s Ceramic Bird Wind Chime Light in red – it’s the highest new entry at No 15, joining the white version, which is at No 4.
• Gardman Frosted Glass Tealight Lanterns move up 10 places to take the No 1 spot.
• Stewart Clear Saucers for pot sizes 11 to 18.5cm are the week’s highest climber as planting moves indoors.

There's a new category for The Greatest Christmas Awards 2014 and the team of Greatest Awards experts will be adding “Lumberjack” status to their judging visits in the search for The Greatest Winter Woodland Display of Artificial Trees.

Sponsored by Scentsicles, the fragranced tree decoration product that has featured in the Top 50 of the GTN Bestsellers Christmas Products Charts for the past two weeks, the Lumberjack Award will be presented to the retail team that have created the best display of artificial Christmas trees.

Festive Productions, who are the UK distributors for Scentsicles have already invited all stockists to enter the competition by sending in photos of their artificial tree woodland display and then The Greatest Christmas Awards “Lumberjacks” will come along and meet the teams to gather the all important background information before the winners are chosen.

The expert visits for The Greatest Christmas Awards have already started, but it’s not too late to be added to the list, just send us your nomination together with a photo and we’ll do the rest.

The Lumberjack Award for The Greatest Winter Woodland Display of Artificial Trees will be presented at The Greatest Awards Christmas Party on January 11^th in the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate.

Send your nominations and photos to: Cassie Hedlund at Festive Productions, or post onto the Festive Productions Facebook page, just as St Peters Garden Centre already have, or send them to The Greatest Awards and we will forward them on trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk



Watch the video ad for Scentsicles here:



The sponsors for The Greatest Christmas Awards are:  

               

Notcutts is celebrating success after scooping the title of Best Large Format Store in the annual Retail Week Interior Awards. The prestigious accolade was awarded to its new, state-of-the-art Tunbridge Wells centre, beating large retail chains such as Next, Homebase and Primark to the post.

The award-winning garden centre in Pembury, which re-opened in April 2014, spans across 25,000 square foot and harnesses the natural surroundings of the site.

Designed by London based agency, Daziel & Pow, the site places gardening and plants at the heart of the shopping experience, with an extensive planteria area that reflects the brand’s rich horticultural heritage and expertise.

The site also features opulent indoor displays, a gift shop and a 190 seat restaurant called ‘The Kitchen’, inspired by market stalls and street food, serving locally sourced produce.

Michael Cole, Business Development and Retail Property Director at Notcutts, commented on the award win: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have won this award. We were up against some tough competition from larger chain stores, so I think this is a real testament to the work we put in and the final results at the centre, which are just incredible!

"This award is particularly special for us because Tunbridge Wells was the first time we’d developed a new format store for a very long time and it’s the first time we’ve won, so two bonuses rolled into one!” 

One of the biggest auctions of holly and mistletoe will take place at Burford House Garden Centre in Tenbury Wells, Gloucestershire, over the coming three weeks.

The auction is being organised by Nick Champion Ltd and is expected to attract a high number of buyers.

Gold and silver variegated holly, tied in a bundle of about 10kg and white berried mistletoe with dark green leaves in round bundles or wraps of 10/15kg will be available to purchase.

Dates for the auctions will are Tuesday 25^th November, Tuesday 2^nd December and Tuesday 9^th December, with a prompt 11am start.

Real Christmas trees will also be available to purchase from Burford House Garden Centre, along with a wide selection of Christmas decorations and gift ideas.

While visiting the auction, buyers will have the opportunity to ramble around Burford House’s 6-acre gardens. Entry is by donations to their two chosen charities; St. Michael’s Hospice (288462) and Greenfingers Charity (1076640). 

Members of The British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) covering garden, DIY and housewares sectors enjoyed face to face time with leading garden industry retailer, Wyevale at the latest BHETA ‘Meet The Buyer’ event, this time held in conjunction with GIMA.  

Seven Wyevale buyers from horticulture, garden and home plus Head of Buying - Leisure, Stuart Heritage and Head of Buying - Gardening, Caroline Linger met with a mix of BHETA and GIMA members at the event on November 12. 

A total of 72 appointments took place and in on the day feedback from the buying team 65 of those appointments will lead to positive follow up from Wyevale. 

The event, which was held at The Holiday Inn (Brentford Lock) was targeted at potential new suppliers to Wyevale or to current suppliers of home products presenting ideas to the gardening buyer and vice versa.  Companies were pre-selected to attend by Wyevale and were allocated 20 minute appointments with the relevant buyer. 

Commenting on the event, Stuart Heritage said: “Wyevale is always keen to see new and innovative products, regardless of the size of the supplying company, and niche players were just as welcome as larger and more established companies.  

"The day exceeded our expectations in terms of opportunities that we will be following up and we have already confirmed that we will work with BHETA and GIMA on two similar events per year going forward.”

DIY and garden sector director at BHETA, Peter Stone said: “As anticipated this was a very popular event and it’s great to see all parties seeing benefits from this kind of opportunity.”   

GIMA director, Vicky Nuttall added: “This was a really productive occasion and the fact that we are going to repeat the format twice a year with Wyevale going forward is terrific news.”

The quest for The Greatest Christmas teams is on.  The expert team of judges are now out and about visiting all of the teams nominated in this years The Greatest Christmas Awards.

You’ll find out who are The Greatest at Christmas this year by joining us at the first awards event of 2015, The Greatest Christmas Awards Christmas Party, sponsored by Premier Decorations, on the night of Sunday January 11^th at The Majestic Hotel, Harrogate.

Our annual awards presentation and Christmas party is an event not to be missed whether you are visiting the Harrogate Christmas and Gift show or just want to have another great Christmas Party with some great garden centre people.

Tickets are now on sale for the party, which includes reception drinks, a 3 course meal with wine, the awards presentation and dancing the night away to a live party band.

Early Bird discounts apply for all tickets purchased before November 23^rd.

Early Bird Ticket prices for The Greatest Christmas Awards Party, sponsored by Premier Decorations.

Please call The Greatest Christmas Awards team on 01733 775700 or e-mail harry.sinclair@tgcmc.co.uk to book your Early Bird tickets today – before November 23rd or buy on-line using these links:

Prices below include VAT

Tickets

1 Ticket £96.00 GBP2 Tickets £192.00 GBP3 Tickets £273.60 GBP4 Tickets £364.80 GBP5 Tickets £432.00 GBP6 Tickets £518.40 GBP7 Tickets £604.80 GBP8 Tickets £691.20 GBP9 Tickets £777.60 GBPTable of 10 £816.00 GBP

I am currently looking for a talented retail manager to join the team of an expanding garden centre. 

This garden centre is part of a large chain of garden centres and has the potential to grow into one of the groups largest.

I am keen to find an experienced retail manager that has ambition to be part of a growing site. You will be a strong man manager with at least 3 years of retail management experience. This could be made up for a supervisory role but you will have experience as an assistant management position.

This role will allow the applicant to take on store wide duty management and join a busy that is keen on progressing their candidates throughout their large web of stores.

Please call 01780 480530 and speak to Brad Peck or apply with your CV, quoting reference #6883 to info@morepeople.co.uk

I am currently looking for a talented retail manager to join the team of an established garden centre.   

This garden centre is part of a large chain of garden centres.  

I am keen to find an experienced retail manager that has ambition to be part of a growing company. You will be a strong man manager with at least 3 years of retail management experience. This could be made up for a supervisory role but you will have experience as an assistant management position.  

This role will allow the applicant to take on store wide duty management and join a busy that is keen on progressing their candidates throughout their large web of stores.

Please call 01780 480530 and speak to Brad Peck or apply with your CV quoting reference #6884 to info@morepeople.co.uk

My client is an independent garden centre based in the midlands. The centre is a modern successful site based in an area with good transport links and a strong existing customer base. There is a large plant area on site and we are looking for someone to join a successful team.  

The Ideal candidate will be a successful garden retailer from a plant focussed background. You will have preferably have some man management experience but this is not essential. 

The successful candidate will be detail orientated and have a record of success in retail. We are looking for someone ambitious that wishes to progress in their career.

Plant knowledge must be good, ideally supported by a qualification.

Please call 01780 480530 and speak to Brad Peck or apply with your CV, quoting reference #6846 to info@morepeople.co.uk

My client is a large independent garden centre with an award winning pedigree. 

This vacancy will be working as a part of the centre management team and will have direct responsibility for the product range of the garden care department and also the storeroom.

I am looking for an ambitious individual who wants to have a sense of ownership over the retail area and has the ability to effectively manage their team. 

Retail experience is a must and garden centre retail experience is preferred. 

Applicants must have experience of staff management, with a minimum of 3-4 years experience, and be able to lead and inspire a team of up to 13 staff. 

They must also have proven buying experience and an ability to successfully negotiate with suppliers. 

They must operate with good standards of merchandising and presentation, coupled with an element of creativity.  

Please call 01780 480530 and speak to Brad Peck or apply with your CV, quoting reference #6881 to info@morepeople.co.uk

Candles, both real and battery operated, are lighting up the GTN Bestsellers Christmas chart.

This week there are 14 Christmas candle product lines in the Top 50 with a cumulative sales volume up 341% on the same week last year.

Battery operated candles are a key driver for this increase. 56% of this week’s candle products sales volume in the Top 50 is for battery operated candles.

Products shining this week include:

• Kaemingk Church Candles are the week’s highest chart re-entry at No 6.
• Premier Battery Operated Dancing Flame Cream Candles, 13cm high, are the fourth highest selling volume Christmas line in the chart, with the 18cm version at No 9.
• The Christmas Present Gift set from Yankee Candles is just outside the Top 10 at No 11.

Irish moss peat, orchid compost and bulb compost are the winners in the GTN Bestsellers Growing Media Chart this week.

After weeks of outdoor planting activity at way above last year’s levels, this week sees activity drop back to more normal sales volumes for the time of the year, and take a move indoors.

Star performers this week:

• 125 litre bales of Shamrock Irish Moss Peat are the week’s highest re-entry at No 12.
• Lorbex Orchid Compost, 2 litre packs, increased sales by 38% to re-enter at No 33.
• Bulb planting compost sales are up 20% on the same week last year as sales of amaryllis bulbs increase in the run up to Christmas.

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 this link.

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

Highlights of the GTN Christmas Products Bestsellers chart for this week are here

Highlights of the GTN Growing Media Bestsellers chart for this 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.