Alexander Rose are to donate one of their 4 metre high beautifully hand-crafted reindeer, seen on their stand at SOLEX, as a prize in the charity raffle at GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards in January.

The reindeer, which has a suggested retail price of £3,950, is woven using Alexander Rose’s own synthetic weave made from the highest quality rattan, on powder-coated aluminium frames shaped to create a distinctive item with sculptural qualities. For the lucky winning garden centre, it will make a fantastic entrance feature or Christmas display centre piece for the 2014 festive season.

The reindeer will be raffled to raise funds for the Make-a-Wish children’s charity at The Greatest Christmas Party in Harrogate on 12 January 2014.

To reserve your tickets for The Greatest Christmas Party contact Pat Flynn on 01733 775700 or e-mail: pat.flynn@tgcmc.co.uk

The Next group could have at least 12 stores with garden centres by the end of 2015.

The latest to be announced is a £9m Home and Garden Centre at Hedge End in Southampton, scheduled to open in spring 2014.

The  three-storey stone and glass retail building with mezzanine will have 8,310 sq.m. of floor space and encompass clothing, homewares, a garden centre and café.

The project involves car parking and a new access road as part of the redevelopment of the Wildern Mill site next to  Hedge End Retail Park, where 41 new homes are to be built.

Last month, the group’s fourth home and garden outlet – the biggest to date –   opened on the site of a former Homebase store at Camberley, joining existing stores at Warrington, Shoreham and Ipswich. Stores for Sheffield, Maidstone and High Wycombe are in the pipeline, possibly opening next spring, and planning applications for another four stores, at Manchester, Norwich, New Malden and Dundee, are awaiting approval, making 12 home and garden outlets in all.


The NEXT garden centre at Shoreham, Sussex.

More summer-like conditions over the past couple of months have helped to boost business at garden centres throughout the country. The GTN Bestsellers All Products Index reveals that summer sales have  helped to keep volumes ahead of the same period last year.

There’s no doubt that non-gardening items like furniture and barbecues have been star performers – hardly surpising as these products suffered badly in 2012. And again catering is playing a crucial role in garden centre fortunes, helping to drive footfall and income.

Let’s hope the encouraging sales figures brought on by the good weather can continue into autumn and beyond. HTA Director General, Carol Paris, had this to say on the matter.

“It’s pleasing to see the season pick up with the warmer weather resulting in improved consumer spending and consumer confidence. However, there is still some way to recovery after last year’s washout and we expect  that autumn and our ‘Plan it, Plant it Campaign’ will contribute positively for the final part of the year.”

Let us know how business at your centre is holding up. Email trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

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

• Garden Products – down 3%
• Veg-2-Gro – up 12%
• Growing Media – up 16%
• All items index – up 25%

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £145.00 per year click here or see the article linked below for our special next year planning offer.

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

Allensmore Nurseries have acquired 40 acres of land at Madley in Herefordshire for further expansion.

Over the past five years, an extra 15 acres at a site near the main nursery has been developed with 'state of the art' growing systems.

They will use similar techniques at the new Madley site along with other production methods they are eager to trial. Family-owned Allensmore have 41 years experience in plant production and grow more than 5 million plants a year.

Allensmore’s theme at this month’s Four Oaks trade show (Hall C, stands 6/7) will again be Christmas. This year's edition of the 'Red' Christmas catalogue features many new products, from wreaths to garlands and a whole range of added value planted containers. Copies of their 2014 catalogue will also be available.

Allensmore produce three catalogues a year: their main season ‘Purple’ catalogue spanning January to July, the autumn ‘Orange’  catalogue, covering August to November and the ‘Red’ Christmas catalogue.

Data collected for the GTN Bestsellers Garden Products chart reveals there is still a lot of gardening activity happening and that householders are spending as much time as possible outside...as well as at garden centres!

Feeding, pest control, plant and tree supports figure strongly in the Top 50, with garden lighting also seeing encouraging sales.

The highest climber is the Gardman Bottle Candle Lantern, above, which has moved up 34 places. Another Gardman lighting item – the Solar Fibre Optic Butterfly Border Light – takes the highest new entry accolade.

Slugs and snails seem to be causing gardeners problems at the moment, so it’s no surprise to see two control products re-entering the chart – Bayer Bio Slug & Snail Killer and Growing Success Advanced Slug Killer.

Another big mover this week is Yeoman Soft Grip Secateur (grape), which has rocketed 28 places up the chart. And a new entry is Creative Products Paving Brush Replacement Head.

Feeding items are also prominent with Scotts Levington Tomorite retaining its top spot for yet another week.

See the full GTN Garden Products Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £145.00 per year click here or see linked article below for special next year planning bonus offer.

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

What’s Gregg Wallace doing behind a desk at Whitehall Garden Centre, Lacock?

Perhaps he’s heard about Whitehall’s fabulous food hall and is doing a bit of industrial espionage before the next series of Masterchef. If so, he’s not very good at disguises…

But, on a closer inspection…it’s…..no, it can't be…it’s not the man with the sweetest tooth on the telly at all…of course, now we can see it…it’s Steve, the centre’s senior plant adviser who specialises in bedding plants, behind his information desk

The resemblance was spotted by GCA inspector Roger Crookes during this year’s inspection visit. “No-one’s ever remarked on it before,” says Steve’s boss, Peter Self.,, “but it is an uncanny likeness and now thanks to Roger he’s stuck with it.”

So, cheers “Gregg” – you could say it’s just desserts for such a convincing lookey-likey!

If you want to see more Gregg Wallace döppelgangers, log on to greggwallace.com

Capel Manor College horticultural student Marcus Papa is the 2013 winner of Mr Fothergill's Award for the student who has demonstrated  the highest skills in plant care. 

He was recently presented with a commemorative shield and a bursary of £500 by the company’s managing director John Fothergill.  The citation says Marcus “has demonstrated his passion for plants and their care in both practical and written assignments.  He produced an outstanding portfolio demonstrating his love of plants.  He is a most deserving student for this award”.

Marcus, from east London, started at Capel Manor College in 2011 on a Level 2 Extended Certificate in Forestry and Arboriculture course.  On completion, he realised he had caught the 'Capel bug' and signed on to the City and Guilds L2 Certificate in Gardening course, which he completed in July 2013; it was during the closing part of this course he was chosen for Mr Fothergill's award.  Marcus now hopes to enrol onto the Level 3 course next term, to continue on his journey in horticulture.

On receiving the award, Marcus said he was delighted and flattered to receive such recognition for his work, and that he was looking forward to making horticulture his career.  "The bursary will certainly be very useful as I continue my studies", he commented.

Capel Manor is the largest land-based college in Greater London, offering a range of nationally accredited courses and apprenticeships and with five centres across Greater London; they are within reach of anyone with a passion for the great outdoors.  Subjects offered include: gardening, landscape construction, environmental studies, garden design, arboriculture and floristry.  For more details of courses at Capel Manor  College offers, log on at www.capel.ac.uk

The Garden Centre Association (GCA) have released the second clue in their competition to guess the new venue for the organisation’s next annual conference (26-29 January 2014).

Iain Wylie, the GCA’s interim chief executive, said: “We’ve had lots of guesses so far but it’s not too late to submit your prediction. Both full and associate members are eligible to enter the competition.

The second clue is: Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.

The first 12 people to correctly guess the venue will receive a bottle of champagne in their room at the conference.

To submit an answer, email info@gca.org.uk. Alternatively people can guess via social media.

More than 300 delegates from the nation’s leading garden centres, including independents and chains, are expected to attend the conference.

Iain added: “As always our conference will provide delegates with pertinent information on key aspects of the garden centre industry to assist members in achieving their business goals.

“The information shared will focus on a wide range of topics, including merchandising, marketing and management.

To view another photo, visit the GCA’s news blog: www.gardencentreassociationnews.blogspot.com  The clue will be posted on to Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/GardenCentreAssociation  and Twitter at www.twitter.com/GC_Association.

The Guild of Fine Food have launched a competition to find the Great Taste Shop of the Year – a chance for garden centres to win extra recognition for their food halls and farm shops.

As part of this year’s  Great Taste Awards, food and drink producers are to be invited to nominate the shop that in their opinion deserves to be Great Taste Shop of the Year – butcher, baker, delicatessen, farm shop, village or community shop, or food hall.

John Farrand, managing director of the organisers of Great Taste says every winning food producer will be eligible to vote for a retailer , “not necessarily one that sells the most, but one who operates their shop with knowledge, flair and with great retail skill”.

A shortlist of 10 shops will be visited and mystery shopped by a panel of experts – they will have consistent judging criteria and feedback will be made available to the final 10 shops in the same way that it is through Great Taste.

The winning shop will be announced at the Great Taste Awards dinner in London on Monday, 9 September at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington.

The Greatest Awards, organised by GTN, already reward team excellence in garden centre food halls and farm shops but this is a chance for suppliers to make their choice.

A new sweet pea bred by the world's leading hybridist and introduced for the 2014 season by Mr Fothergill's has been named Sir Henry Cecil in honour of Britain's greatest racehorse trainer, who died earlier this year

The sweetly scented chocolate flake variety was officially 'christened' by Lady Cecil at the Kentford, Newmarket, seed company's annual press open day this week and is expected to be a top seller.

“We knew Sir Henry loved his flower garden as a form of relaxation from the pressure of training racehorses, and so we were honoured when Lady Cecil agreed to our request to name the new variety in his memory”, said the company's joint managing director John Fothergill. “He was also greatly admired and loved not only by the racing community, but by the whole of our home town of Newmarket and beyond.”.

Sweet Pea Sir Henry Cecil was bred in New  Zealand by the renowned Dr Keith Hammett and is available exclusively from Mr Fothergill's. A packet of 20 seeds will retail at £1.99.

Sweet Peas are the UK’s biggest-selling flower seeds and Mr Fothergill’s are pushing hard to increase sales this year. A new, full height hotspot stand to showcase their extensive range of sweet pea seeds has been introduced for the 2013/14 season. The 42 single colour varieties featured are displayed alphabetically.

Monkton Elm Garden & Pet Centre won a large gold medal and ‘Best in Show’ for their ‘Snow in Summer’ garden at the Taunton Flower Show.

Andrew Pitman, the centre’s plant manager, said: “It was a summer cottage garden with a twist. Snow coated all of the main features of the garden and even the plants were sprinkled with a dusting of it.”

The theme was designed to represent our changing weather.

Andrew added: “One of the judges commented that they thought it was the best show garden we have ever exhibited at the Taunton Flower Show.

The Bourne family at Perrywood Garden Centre want to make the GCA’s A-list.  Alan and Karin Bourne and their son Simon - middle child of three – are the management team at Perrywood. “In reality, Simon pretty much runs the whole business. He’s good at most things,” Alan tells Mike Wyatt in this months Garden Trade News. 

At the age of 32, Simon Bourne finds himself running his Mum and Dad’s garden centre. If you’d told him when he left university that this would one day happen, it would probably have scared him. “I had it all worked out,” he tells me.

“I definitely did not want to join the family business. I did not want to run a garden centre, I was certain I did not want to work in retail.”  He choose a career in mechanical engineering and, like many an aspiring twenty-something, hoped it might lead to a role in the world of motor racing. “But I never got anywhere near it.” Instead, he landed a job with Trinity House, re-engineering lighthouses.

It took seven years there for his own personal light to come on, illuminating the path to the family business – Perrywood Garden Centre and Nurseries near Tiptree in Essex.

So what happened on the road to Damascus? “I used to go on lots of courses and conferences and instead of thinking about how I could apply this new-found knowledge to my job, I found myself working out how it could benefit the family business. I began to realise that, although I had told myself I didn’t want to be in it, I actually did.”

He found himself at odds with the public service culture at Trinity House, “where there is no profit motive – you are given a budget and told to spend it”. Importantly, he realised that the successful family business presented a ready-made opportunity to be his own boss, or at least have more control over his destiny, whatever that might turn out be. “I understood that once you sell your business, you can never get it back, so that was a draw,” he said.

His parents, Alan and Karin, had spent 25 years building up a former fruit and vegetable smallholding into a thriving garden centre. “They had been thinking about an exit strategy but they didn’t want to sell up and I just couldn’t imagine that happening.” Nervously, he approached Alan and Karin. “Mum was concerned that I was doing it because I felt I had to, not because I really wanted to.”  Once he assured them that this was destiny, not duty, he was welcomed with open arms. “We had always thought about it,” Alan tells me. “We hoped it would end up this way but we didn’t want to force it.” Perrywood’s roots go back another generation.

When the supermarkets began to squeeze the fresh produce market, the nursery founded by Alan’s parents began to struggle. Alan left his job with Colchester parks department to join the business and quickly persuaded them to erect a greenhouse for the production of garden plants. Plant sales soon began to outstrip potatoes and strawberries.

In 1983, with Mary and Les ready to bow out, Alan and Karin swopped houses. “Our house and the smallholding had roughly the same value so we took on the nursery and they moved into our place,” Alan said. Turnover that year was £75,000.

Thirty years later, after two major building projects and a programme of continuous investment (all self-financed), Perrywood has a turnover of more than £5 million. Alan thinks it can climb further. “We don’t talk about expansion. We think of it as improvement. If we go on getting better, the growth will follow naturally.” 

Perrywood was 63rd in the Garden Centre Association’s standards audit last year. This year, Simon says, they’ve aimed for the Top 50 and next year will push hard  to reach the Top 25 – in effect, the A-list. 

The GCA’s standards are famously stringent so this is a tough ask for any centre, but you would be ill-advised to bet against Perrywood getting there when the results  are revealed next January. 

Simon is garden centre manager and Alan says he gets full reign to manage it.  “He’s good at most things he turns his hand to. He’s good with the customers, he’s good with the products, he does all the sundries, furniture and barbecues buying and I don’t ever have to question it. We’re now more likely to go Simon if we want to find out about health and safety or pay rates or IT.  The day to day management is taken care of and it’s made a big difference to Karin and I. We don’t have to do so much preparation before we go away somewhere.” 

Simon says his arrival in the business allowed his father more time and energy to do what he loves and does best - growing plants. The Perrywood nursery grows around 40% of all the plants they sell. “Dad is a plantsman and a very good one,” he says. “He knows what people want.” 

Simon’s older sister Hannah, currently on maternity leave from her marketing and communications business, looks after the centre’s publicity and advertising. His wife runs the centre’s on-line operation. His younger brother Tristan works in the renewable energies industry. Simon has young children, so there will be a long wait before we discover whether Perrywood will remain as a family concern.                                             

This series is sponsored by Quinton Edwards, specialist property consultants to the garden centre and horticultural industry www.quintonedwards.co.uk  email: sales@quintons.co.uk



Read all of the August issue of Garden Trade News here.

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 and on the GTN website www.gardentradenews.co.uk.

Every week we give sales volume comparisons with 2011 as well as 2012 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, or subscribe on-line here

or e-mail karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

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

Highlights of the GTN Veg-2-Gro 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.

Gardman have appointedChris Keightley as National Account Manager. He will manage key accounts, predominantly in the high street channel.

Keightley was previously was area sales managerat Trixie Pet Products, sales development manager at Happy Pet Products and national sales representative at Jagram Timber Products. He began his career in retail management with Blooms Garden Centres.

Keightley said he was pleased to be joining the company at a time when it was going to market with some compelling deals and promotions.

Bernard Shannon, Gardman’s sales director, said Keightley’s valuable experience and approach fitted well with the company’s service-based strategy.

Autumn planting seed potatoes from Taylors continue to dominate the GTN Bestsellers Veg-2-Gro chart but change is taking place with 20 re-entries and two new entries in the Top 50 this week, with Suttons doing particularly well with 18 items.

Another seed company Thompson & Morgan also figure prominently with 12 entries, including the highest new entry in Green Manure Phacella. Another bestselling newcomer from T&M is Swiss Chard Bright Lights, which has had a fantastic sales week.

Suttons Lettuce Salad Bowl is the highest re-entry. The same company also have re-entries in Cabbage Wheelers Imperial, closely followed by Lettuce Winter Gem. Leaf Beet Bright Lights is a new entry for Suttons.

The fourth new entry comes from Farplants, who see their Chilli Pepper Demon Red enter in the top half of the chart.

The highest climber of the week is Quantil Carrot Baby Round, moving up 35 places.

At the top of the chart Charlotte overtakes Maris Piper and Duke of York to claim the most popular seed potato for Christmas crown.

See the full GTN Veg-2-Gro Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £145.00 per year click here or see linked article below for special next year planning offer.

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

In a report in the 3 August edition of GTN Xtra, it was erroneously stated that Malcolm Scott Consultants represented Mere Park Garden Centre in a recent court case hearing relating to a planning appeal. Malcolm Scott Consultants wish to make it clear that they were not involved in the case in any way but, in their capacity as planning advisers to the HTA and GCA, wished to bring an important case to the notice of garden centres. Malcolm Scott and GTN apologise for any embarrassment the error may have caused.

A conservatory furniture supplier’s sales director has won a bronze medal at the Jewish Olympics in Israel.

Mark Stewart (36) from Hale, sales director at Manchester-based Desser, and fellow Mancunians Danny Schweiger (42) who is joint MD at Current Body and Laurence Newman (39), joint MD at Character World, helped Team GB’s football team beat Brazil 2-1 to secure the medal at the 19th Maccabiah Games.

“It’s been a gruelling competition as we’ve played far superior teams like Brazil and Argentina,” Mark said, “so to win a bronze medal feels more like winning gold.”

The games are now the third largest sporting event in the world, after the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. Britain ended up with a 31-medal haul, including six gold, eight silver and 17 bronze.

Desser, which recently opened its factory shop, is a leading supplier of rattan conservatory furniture. Established in 1919, the family-run firm provides conservatory furniture to retailers, including many garden centres, nationwide.


Mark Stewart (right) with Danny Schweiger and Lawrence Newman.

Bosmere say the unusual weather patterns over the last month have boosted sales of their covers for outdoor garden furniture and barbeques to record levels.

Following several weeks of sunny weather, many parts of the UK experienced severe storms and wet weather which seemed almost wintry at times.

The warmer weather had boosted sales of furniture and barbeques and as soon as the weather changed, consumer demand for protective covers soared. Bosmere’s Sales Director, Steve Millington, said: “Over the past two weeks our sales office has seen a huge increase in orders for the whole range of covers. This has resulted in the highest intake of in-season orders in the company’s history. Because of the substantial stockholding at our Gatwick distribution centre, we have been able to ensure fast turnaround of customer’s orders”.

A month after GTN Bestsellers reported that garden centre sales volumes in June were the best for five years, the HTA confirmed this week that their own figures told a similar story of summer recovery.

The HTA Garden Retail Monitor showed June’s garden centre sales were up by 26% compared to 2012, with year-to-date sales up 3% compared to this time last year. They had now overtaken 2012 levels but were down on 2011.

The 6 July edition of GTN Xtra reported that the GTN Bestsellers All Products Epos Sales Index registered a 27 per cent increase in sales volumes in June, compared to the same month in 2012. Veg seeds andplanfgs were up 94 per cent and growing media up 36 per cent

HTA director general Carol Paris said it was pleasing to see the season pick up with the warmer weather, resulting in improved consumer spending and consumer confidence. “However, there is still some way to recovery after last year’s washout and we expect that autumn and our ‘Plan it, Plant it Campaign’ will contribute positively for the final part of the year.”

The August edition of HTA Market Update is available for members to download from the market information pages on the HTA website. 

http://www.the-hta.org.uk/index.php

Although sales volumes of growing media are ahead of the same week in 2012, there is the inevitable slow down happening.

But there are still some bright spots like Scotts Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Compost (56 litres), which returned to the Bestsellers Growing Media chart. Obviously, gardeners reacting to the recent dry spell and buying bags before recent rain showers.

Other notable performances this week are:

• Scotts Levington Ericaceous Compost (50 litres) saw a 50% increase in sales.
• Westland Indoor Plant Compost (10 litres) became the highest climber, moving up 23 places.
• Arthur Bowers John Innes No 2 (20 litres) also saw a 50% rise in sales volumes.

See the full GTN Growing Media Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £145.00 per year click here or see the linked article below for a special next year planning offer.

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

Melcourt, best known for their bark-based mulches and growing media, are re-entering the retail market this year with a peat-free compost targeting keen gardeners.

The product, to be called Sylvagrow, is based on the company’s acclaimed Sylvamix professional compost and will be launched at Glee this month. A 50-litre bag will have an SRP of £5.99.

Here at GTN we’re getting plenty of requests for market information as buyers, managers and suppliers start to plan for next year.

Garden Trade News and our weekly GTN Bestsellers Charts are among the best ways to see how products both new and existing have performed across a basket of garden centres and how suppliers are marketing their new products to retailers for the year ahead.

If you’ve not been a full subscriber before you’ll have missed the GTN sales charts for the critical sales periods throughout May, June and July when business finally turned around this year and you won’t have been able access issues of Garden Trade News to keep an eye on all the market activity.

So that you can get the best possible value from a subscription to Garden Trade News we now have a very special next year planning offer to make you:

GTN Bonus Subscription Offer

• If you take out a subscription today I will send you bonus back issues of the GTN Bestsellers Charts for May, June and July 2013 so that you have a complete set as you plan your products and marketing for next year.  As the subscription price is only £145.00 per year, that means you can have 15 months of key garden retail sell through information for the equivalent of less than £10.00 per month, plus issues of Garden Trade News every month and full access to the GTN on-line archive.

All you have to do is click the "pay now" button below and we’ll send the bonus back issues too you straight away along with log-in details to access the GTN archive.

Retailers and suppliers, large and small, are benefitting from increased distribution and sales as retailers use the GTN Bestsellers charts to stock and sell products they know are bestsellers elsewhere and use ideas and supplier hints and tips in Garden Trade News to further increase sales.

Buy your special Next Year Bonus subscription* to Garden Trade News and GTN Bestsellers for only £145.00 here:

* Your subscription includes a copy of GTN Bestsellers every week posted to you, exclusive access to the GTN Bestsellers Charts on-line, monthly copies of Garden Trade News posted to you, full access to the GTN archive and the GTN Xtra e-newsletter.

See a sample issue of GTN Bestsellers using this link

We do hope you are able to take up this offer and look forward to having your company receiving Garden Trade News every month along with the weekly GTN Bestsellers charts which also include our renowned money making GTN Bestsellers Tip of the Week.

Special subscription rates are available for multiple user subscriptions.  Please phone 01733 775700 or e-mail karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk for more details.