All it took was one week of relatively good February weather for gardeners to get out to centres to make their essential gardening purchases and we saw sales volumes bounce back up to normal levels for this time of year.

Of course the make up of those sales are very different to previous years without the usual impulse gift sales we normally see when cafes and restaurants are open.

While the GTN Bestsellers All Products sales index got near to last year’s total for the week, just 9% down, growing media sales were up by 53%, Veg-2-Gro lines up by 46% and wildlife and wild bird care sales up by 27%.

Growing media saw the biggest week on week growth of 451% as the better weather combined with Early Bird offers that were snapped up by gardeners wanting to get growing.

The recent snow and cold weather will no doubt set things back but it’s good to know that when the weather is right gardening gets going!

GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 5.

• Garden Products Top 50 – down 4%
• Growing Media Top 50 – up 53%
• Veg 2 Gro Top 50 – up 46%
• Wild Bird & Wildlife Care Top 50 – up 27%

GTN Bestsellers All Sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 5.

• All Plants with Barcode index – down 24%
• All Items with Barcode index – down 9%

See the full GTN Bestsellers Top 50 charts, compiled from garden centre Epos data every week, with a years subscription to the printed newsletter for only £145.00 using this link.

Garden Centres in Scotland and Wales, where garden centres are currently not allowed to open, need our support with their petitions to devolved governments to allow them to re-open as soon as possible.  

To sign the petition to the Welsh Parliament follow this link: https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/244681

To sign the petition to the Scottish Parliament follow this link:  https://www.change.org/ReopenScottishGardenCentres 

With the nation spending more time at home in the past 12 months due to national lockdowns, consumers have turned their attention to creating their own sanctuary, whether this be inside the home or in their outdoor space. 

As a result, the trend for house plants has surged with one indoor plant retailer having seen such a surge in product demand, they recorded a 500% increase in sales during the UK lockdown*. This booming trend has seen brands invest in NPD dedicated to this new audience, including Hozelock with the latest addition to its range of trigger sprayers. 

Speaking of the trend, Hozelock National Sales Manager, Chris Hepburn, said: “The trend for houseplants in the UK market has grown significantly, which presents a variety of new opportunities for brands, such as Hozelock, and garden centre retailers to attract a new audience. 

“This audience will include those who have potentially never shown an interest in plant or gardening related products before and are therefore keen to ensure they have the right garden tools for their new hobby. As a business, we’ve responded to these consumer demands and have extended our range of trigger sprayers in 2021 to complete the product portfolio.” 

The new Pulsar 1L range, which is available in three eye-catching colours, features an ergonomic trigger, as well as an adjustable nozzle to ensure the spray pattern is suitable for the consumer’s needs. Unlike many other products, the Pulsar 1L has a side fill-cap, allowing users to quickly and easy refill with water, without having to unscrew the nozzle. 

This product adds to Hozelock’s growing collection of Trigger Sprayers, which includes the popular Decorative Trigger Sprayer, as well as the Spraymist and the Kaleido Trigger Sprayer, meaning there is a product to meet all indoor watering needs. 

*https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/how-to-grow/green-revolution-houseplants-took-homes-pandemic/

Floralsilk has opened its impressive purpose built showroom located in Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 0BQ.  Spread over 6,500 sq ft, a visit to the showroom provides the opportunity to see an unrivalled extensive range, check the quality of products, and find inspiration from stunning displays. 

With over 1,200 new products and 7 themes on offer, the Floralsilk 2021 Christmas Collection is based on magical elements that use the wonder of the natural world to bring a sense of community, responsibility and simplicity to Christmas.  This is a range that speaks of hope, growth and renewal….something that we all hope 2021 will bring! Here are 3 of our most popular themes:

Nature

One theme that demonstrates this ethos perfectly is the ‘Nature’ range. Natural, sustainable and conscious, the palette includes beach blues, corals, beiges and taupes. Using natural materials and textures including glass, paper, wood and grasses, this theme is fresh, clean and pretty.

Ice

A frosty monochrome palette of crisp white, cool greys, sparkly silver and a dark anthracite accent, the Ice theme evokes a real sense of Winter.  Full of sumptuous faux fur, metal and etched glass with lots of snow-covered foliage it gives all of those ‘White Christmas’ feels.  There are also some display items in this theme including oversized baubles to cater for the door decoration craze made popular by countless celebrities this year.

Fire

As well as the traditional, there is certainly some flamboyance in the trends for Christmas 2021 and the ‘Fire’ theme is a great demonstration of this. Pink and red pampas grass with the inclusion of floral accents and contemporary tree trim add a modern twist to a warm & opulent red, gold and pink colour palette.

To book an appointment please call 01778 425205 or email sales@floralsilk.co.uk.  The Christmas 2021 brochure can also be downloaded from www.floralsilk.co.uk

You can view Floralsilk's 2021 Christmas Collection on this special video. Click here to view

Would you like some real festive charmers to inspire and delight your customers during the next Christmas season? The Original Wooden Duck Company (DCUK) is currently taking pre-orders for their Christmas 2021 characters and ranges until 31st March 2021.

Along with new selections in the traditional style, a variety of Alpine Ducklings, Elf Duckys, new Dinky Ducks and individual card-backed decorations are joined by festive Garden Birds and an assortment of Penguins for 2021.

Their new 2021 trade catalogue is also available, with many other ranges that are in stock for the garden gift trade right now, including the incredibly popular Raincoat Ducklings and animal boot wearing Wild Wellies. Both ranges have been going down a storm with the public since launching online only a few weeks ago – and they are now available for the trade.

Fresh from being a finalist in the 2021 Gift of The Year Awards, The Original Wooden Duck Company (DCUK) is passionate about helping people to smile every day, thanks to their wooden characters. All DCUK originals are hand carved from earth-kind bamboo and painted individually, making each one unique. Ducks, Penguins, Garden Birds, and their updated Dinky Duck Collection are all available. 

Arriving with their own name tag, the DCUK Pin is added to each character who passes the smile and quality tests - a visible promise of a gift of exceptional quality and charm.

The friendly DCUK trade team would love to talk to you about the benefits of offering original DCUK characters to your centre visitors and customers. They can clarify the best stock combinations and price packages, share retail customer insights - and provide engaging visuals and display assets.

Check out the links below to easily download the latest PDF brochures, as well as watch the videos featuring the new character ranges available. All trade enquiries should be directed to Louise or David at DCUK on 01803 866316 or via email to mail@dcuk.com. 

dcuk.com

Download PDF versions of 2021 brochures: https://tinyurl.com/dcuk135

See the videos with the latest characters: https://tinyurl.com/dcuk131

As 2021 picks up pace, it’s now only a matter of weeks before we reach the garden retail industry’s favourite FUNdraising event of the year – Garden Re-Leaf Day (March 19^th).

Whilst this year’s event will be different due to the ongoing pandemic, that does not mean that the charity’s supporters aren’t pulling out all the stops! Here we find out more about some of the amazing events which will be taking place throughout March 2021 to help Garden Re-Leaf celebrate its 10^th anniversary!

10 miles for 10 years

Kate Ebbens of Capi UK has pledged to run 10 miles on March 19^th, with the company throwing their weight behind the challenge with £500. Kate will be clocking up the miles close to home and aims to complete the distance in 1-hour 40mins.  As if that wasn’t enough, Kate has also given up her biggest vice – coffee – for the whole of 2021. To help avoid temptation Kate is donating £1 to Greenfingers for each day she goes coffee-free! You can make  a donation to support Kate’s efforts here http://www.justgiving.com/Kate-Ebbens2

From Land’s End to John O’Groats

A group of intrepid walkers from Hornby Whitefoot PR, Deco-Pak and Garden Trade News have vowed to walk the distance between Land’s End and John O’Groats throughout March 2021. Measuring 603 miles as the crow flies, these walkers will be cheering each other on from the safety of their own homes and using video chat to keep the morale high. A special video capturing the efforts of the team will also be made available after the event. Additional walkers are welcome to join in the fun. Email kimberley@hornbywhitefootpr.co.uk if you’d like to get involved.

The Thames Walk

The team from leading trade exhibition, Glee, are – Covid allowing – hoping to tackle a 51 mile stretch of the infamous Thames Path, all within a day’s walking. Leading the pack will be Glee’s Event Director, Matthew Mein, who was the originator of the Garden Re-Leaf Sponsored Walk back in 2015. Matthew has completed every Garden Re-Leaf Walk since, racking up 120 miles for the charity to date, one of only two people who have done so! 

Get involved in Garden Re-Leaf Day 2021

Since its inception in 2012, Garden Re-Leaf Day has been a key event within the garden retail calendar. Each year hundreds of people from across the industry, including suppliers and retailers, come together to undertake an incredible series of fundraising events. During the last nine years the event has raised in excess of £660,000, all of which has gone towards helping the charity design and create magical gardens in children’s hospices throughout the country.

Registration for the 2021 event is now live, and Greenfingers is also on the look out for sponsors of the event. To find out more please contact Linda Petrons by emailing linda@greefingerscharity.org.uk

FUNdraising ideas for Garden Re-Leaf Day 2021

You will find a host of ideas in the Garden Re-Leaf Fundraising pack but here’s a few ways you can get involved and help Greenfingers to continue creating magical gardens in children’s hospices across the nation: 

• Plantathons are perfect for generating some buzz instore whilst simultaneously generating more stock and donating to Greenfingers. Previous events have included 12- and 24-hour Plantathons. 
• Hold a virtual quiz, with a minimum donation for all entrants.
• Raffles and tombolas are a great way of getting lots of people involved. Gather prizes from around your store, or ask friends and colleagues to donate prizes, before selling raffle tickets ahead of the grand unveiling of the lucky winner!
• Cake sales and coffee mornings – are simple yet effective FUNdraisers.
• An online auction is a great way to raise funds and involve your friends and colleagues
• Team up with friends and colleagues to complete a virtual walk or cycle challenge. Set yourselves a target – 100 miles for example – and work together to achieve it. Walk around your local area, on a treadmill, whatever it takes! Keep in touch via Zoom to keep the group enthusiasm going!

For more FUNdraising ideas or to obtain a copy of the 2021 fundraising pack drop Linda a line - she’d love to hear from you.

Risk Capital Partners, a London-based private equity firm has further enhanced their consumer-focused portfolio with the acquisition of online gardening products retailer, Primrose.

Founded in 2003 and now Europe’s largest pure play online garden products retailer, Primrose offers a ‘one stop shop’ for all things horticultural, sourced from a diverse network of international suppliers, as well as local UK nurseries and growers. The products are sold direct to consumers, via its UK and European websites.

Sales at Primrose surged last year, as the coronavirus pandemic triggered a global gardening boom. Similarly, as an online-only retailer, Primrose was able to take advantage of the significant opportunities in online sales within the sector.

Primrose was most recently owned by Rockpool, a private equity firm which backed the landmark private equity management buy-out of Primrose in 2018, led by a specialist deal team from Smith Cooper Corporate Finance (SCCF) two years ago. Risk Capital Partners then acquired Primrose in November 2020, providing working capital investment to support a continued growth in trading and online sales.

Independently owned, Risk Capital Partners focus is “working with entrepreneurs with ambition and helping them to achieve transformational growth through acquisitions, roll-out programmes and bold organic growth strategies.” Primrose was identified as a key investment opportunity, following which a growth capital deal was agreed.

Primrose will continue to trade as normal, led by its existing management team - Mark Pearson (CEO) and Ross Chester (CFO). Darren Hodson and Joshua Gurton from Smith Cooper Corporate Finance (SCCF) supported management on the transaction.

Mark Pearson said: “This transaction marks an exciting opportunity to capitalise on Primrose’s existing position as the UK’s market leader in the online-only arena. In the last few months, we’ve enhanced our product range and also invested significantly in our internal and e-commerce systems, ensuring we have robust foundations for the next phase of growth.”

Darren Hodson, Partner at SCCF comments “We were delighted to support Mark and Ross throughout this transaction. Having supporting Mark in the acquisition of Primrose 2 years ago, we already understood the business and the aspirations of its management team and were therefore well placed to advise.”

“Primrose offers favourable long term market drivers for the British and European garden product markets, and there remains plenty of opportunity for continued and strategic growth and consolidation of the fragmented sector in which they operate.”

Smith Cooper is one of the largest independently owned and preferred accountancy and business advisory firms for owner managed businesses across the Midlands. The firm specialises in providing intelligent, efficient and cost-effective bespoke advisory services to both corporate and individual clients. Smith Cooper has six offices across the Midlands including Derby, Birmingham and Nottingham.

There was a big shift in plant sales at the start of February with almost half of the GTN Top 50 being re-entries as gardeners started buying their plants with the summer ahead in mind.

Highlights of the week were:

• Pittosporum plants were the highest re-entry at No 9 while Lupinus returned at No 10.
• Lavandula were the highest chart climber, up 28 places to No 8.
• All Plants volume sales change: Week on week UP 32.5%.  Year to date vs 2020 DOWN 50.5%, vs  2019 DOWN 38.7%.

See the full GTN Bestsellers Top 50 charts, compiled from garden centre Epos data every week, with a years subscription to the printed newsletter for only £145.00 using this link.

After an extensive assessment, the elho group has been awarded with the B Corporation certification. Certified B Corporations are for-profit companies that use the power of business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

They meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. This B Corp status comes with an explicit responsibility: to keep the world a livable, healthy and safe place for future generations.

“Doing good has been in the DNA of elho for many years. The elho group feels a strong responsibility to always do good across our total global supply chain, with nature and people in mind. That is the reason we were eager to become a Certified B Corporation,” stated Olaf Elderenbosch, CEO of the elho group. “We feel it is our responsibility to continue to develop and contribute to a greener world and connect as many people as possible with nature.”

At elho, 100% of the production process runs on its own wind energy and in 2020 8 million KG of recycled plastic waste was converted into plant pots. The elho group is continuously improving production techniques and exploring all possibilities to be able to produce the full collection with 100% recycled plastics. With the ambition to become a 100% circular company it aims for zero CO2 emissions.

“We’re really happy to see that more and more people prefer to work for companies, like elho, that are meaningful, make real a impact and contribute to a better world,” according to HR manager, Engeline Brekelmans.

Stanley Bragg Architects have secured planning permission for a warehouse extension at Scotsdale Nursery, Great Shelford near Cambridge.

This will enable Scotsdale to expand their customer services, which now include click and collect.

The Horticultural Trades Association’s Market Update report shows that nationally garden centre sales were 46% down in January from the same month last year.

However, the prolonged increase in time spent at home may be driving consumers to think about making more significant improvements to their garden spaces as we approach the warmer months under lockdown restrictions once more, as average transactions grew by 64% to £23.56.

Sales of garden/gardening categories were 17% down, dampened by the widespread snow and wet weather; whilst non-garden/gardening categories saw a 60% decline on January 2020 sales, with the impact of catering closures a major contributor. Catering typically makes up 25-30% of turnover in January for garden centres with a café or restaurant.

The HTA Market Update February report shows that consumer concerns have shifted away from the NHS/healthcare and towards EU Exit, the economy and unemployment, which now stands at 5%, the highest rate since 2016.

Consumer demand for garden landscaping products has remained high through the lockdowns and the team at Kelkay expect this to continue when restrictions are lifted. 

Despite all the challenges associated with operating in a Covid-secure way, the team at Pollington have increased manufacturing capacity significantly, and have higher inventory on hand than ever before, approximately 50% more than the prior year.

Additionally, the team at Kelkay have signed a long-term lease for additional land in Pocklington which will expand inventory holding capacity by a further 25%.

 “I’m so proud of the team,” said Jon Wilson, Operations Director. “In November last year we set a new record for manufacturing output in a single month, and we are continuing to outperform prior year performance by investing in more resources and productivity. 

“Our pre-season customer commitments are in many cases more than double last year, and so we are doing all we can to respond to extraordinary additional demand.”

Spoga+gafa believe they have a real chance of holding the fair in 3 ½ months time.

Director, Stefan Lohrberg told visitors and exhibitors last week: "We want to give you the chance to network and make growth possible - whether at the trade fair in Cologne or at the digital trade fair. We have an exciting and challenging time ahead of us until the exhibition date in early summer, which is naturally also marked by doubts on your part as to whether the situation will allow spoga+gafa to be held as planned. We take this uncertainty seriously but believe that we have a real chance of holding the fair in a good 3 ½ months.

"However, to be able to assess the early summer more reliably, we need a little more time. That is why we have decided, together with the committees and associations, many exhibitors, and visitors, to wait until the beginning of March to make a final assessment of the situation. In the coming days, worldwide visitor and exhibitor surveys will begin. The results will support us in our decision in March.

Stefan added: "We are even more pleased that there is good news from our partners. We are continuing our long-standing and trusting cooperation with our conceptual sponsor IVG and its many members at the fair. We are also expanding our cooperation with our two top association partners VDG and BHB, who will be repeating their conferences at spoga+gafa this year or holding new ones. The BHB Summit has long been a part of the event in Cologne, and the VDG will hold its Annual General Meeting at spoga+gafa for the first time. We also welcome the Motorists' Anniversary Event as a new feature this year. You can look forward to these informative events:

•            BHB GardenSummit (1 June)

•            VDG Winter Conference (29 - 31 May)

•            Motorists Congress (29 & 30 May)

For you, this means the best contacts, strong networking, and bundled expertise in one place. At no other trade fair in the world do so many national and global players come together as at spoga+gafa. And at no other trade fair do you can enter into personal exchange with so many decision-makers, on site or digitally."

Exhibitors can expect to receive a questionnaire in the next few days which will allow spoga+gafa to asses the situation and make definitive decisions.

Tyl by NatWest urges UK to keep supporting their local independents online and in person when lockdown ends and offers advice to independents on how to create loyal customers.

Examining the motivations behind intentions to shop local, the survey found that support is not unconditional. Whilst 40% consciously tried to support local - naming supporting the local economy and jobs (35%), reducing environmental impact (21%), better quality and interesting products (15%) and the introduction of easier methods of payment including contactless and QR codes as the reasons they shopped local more (15%) - almost half (45%) reported that the reason for their shift to local spend was due to the pandemic restricting their movement.

In order to help generate insight for small business customers, Tyl asked consumers to share the top things that would help them to spend more often with local independents. The most popular response was for the business to have an online presence to provide convenience and navigate through lockdowns (25%). Loyalty schemes (23%) and the ability to accept card payments (21%) also came in the top three, indicating the opportunities available for small businesses if they can adapt to shifting consumer preferences and continue to connect with customers.

Mike Elliff, CEO, Tyl said: “Small independent businesses, their leaders and their staff right across the UK have shown remarkable resilience over the past year under extraordinarily tough conditions.

“The pandemic has fundamentally shifted consumer preferences, with the importance of developing card payment, cashless and online solutions made abundantly clear. Through this research, we wanted to highlight the rising tide of support they have amongst locally conscious consumers and the opportunities this presents for recovery and growth.

“Now is the time to think about what steps you take as a business to cement the new relationships that have been built with your loyal local customers to make sure their business is retained beyond lockdown and the pandemic.”

Tyl by NatWest is a new, innovative payments service designed in partnership with UK SMEs to make it easier for small business customers across the country to receive payments in-store, online and over the phone and manage cash flow during COVID-19 and beyond.

Topsoil forms a huge part of growing media sales every year but very few topsoils deliver when it comes to organic matter or environmental protection, according to the creators of the new organic topsoil, The Real Soil Company.

“Consumers know that they need topsoil and are aware of its role in gardening projects. However, what they may not be very informed about is the production of most topsoil and why much of what they are buying will do little to boost their plant or crop growth, whilst in fact, also doing very little to ‘protect the planet’ in these environmentally-conscious times”, said Simon Hedley, Managing Director of Boughton Loam Ltd, which is responsible for bringing SuperSoil from The Real Soil Company to market.

“Topsoil can be best divided into three quality grades – premium, general purpose and economy. The quality is not always clearly defined on the packaging, which means consumers are often buying product that is not fit for purpose and, unfortunately, there are no industry standards for topsoil health when it comes to quality. For instance, Topsoil has a weight conversion ratio of on average 1.2 tonnes per cubic metre. What this means is a typical bag of “topsoil” purchased from a garden centre or DIY retailer purporting to contain more than 25 litres of product is not going to contain topsoil. Instead it will have a high sand content and will include wood fibre, peat and other environmentally damaging products. These elements not only lead to consumer disappointment regarding quality, results and value for money, but just as importantly they will impact the overall long-term health of soil and the surrounding environment. Plastic, and even glass from green waste sources, can complete the overall composition, which can prove even more harmful to both man and beast.

“On a good day, many of the best-selling topsoils are little more than 80% sand and 20% compost; a combination of which offers little additional nutritional and buffering value for plants and will lack body, so plants will also not receive the necessary support for optimum growth,” added Simon. “It is this knowledge that led to the development of The Real Soil Company and SuperSoil. This is not another ‘me too’ product but one that has been designed to breathe some new life into this product category, whilst also increasing consumer buy-in through the strong eco messaging.”

The Real Soil Company’s SuperSoil benefits from being ‘super charged’ with the inclusion of natural and organic single-source plant derived amendment, which when blended with natural topsoil, meets higher environmental, physical and nutritional standards than is currently specified in BS3882.

Each batch of SuperSoil benefits from the finest natural topsoil as the main ingredient and is then blended according to a stringent formula set out by the company’s in-house soil analyst to ensure consistency and optimum characteristics.  The resulting improved biology of the soil means that The Real Soil Company’s SuperSoil consistently outperforms current market-leading topsoils in key areas, including phosphorous (required for plant respiration and growth), potassium (essential for respiration and photosynthesis), magnesium (creates brighter colours), organic matter (improves soil structure, water retention and drought tolerance) and sand/silt/clay content.

The team at The Real Soil Company has also enlisted independent testing to ensure that its SuperSoil continues to meet the rigorous parameters it has set for itself. One such test, which investigated water dynamics, saw the product retain in excess of 94% more water than one of the current market-leading manufactured soils.

Simon concluded: “Topsoil plays such a significant role in growing media sales but, for so long, the focus has been on compost and the great peat debate. There will, inevitably, be a shift of focus to topsoil, with consumers expecting the same eco-credentials. With The Real Soil Company’s SuperSoil, it is possible to stock a brand that holds these credentials at its heart, without compromising on results and functionality.”

Find out more

To find out more about The Real Soil Company please visit www.therealsoilcompany.co.uk or email info@therealsoilcompany.co.uk

Geotext Pro is the ideal cleaning kit solution for nursery management. The maintenance of anti-root fabrics and outside pavements is made simple with the new AXI-brush option.

Uses Only Water

Both the machine and brush were developed with the TerrazzaMC patented technology. The Geotech brush is ideal for cleaning anti root fabric, woven or non-woven and uses only water (no chemicals or detergents). Ever since the launch of the Geotex Pro machine, Terrazza MC have learnt more and more about the unique features this solution offers to plant and tree growers across Europe and the U.K.

Satisfied Customer

UK based Kernock Park Plants are delighted with the results of their purchase. Julian Cooper said: “We purchased the sweeper after meeting Terrazza at the South West Growers Show in 2019.  Delivery was quick and they were really helpful and provided a full onsite demo and training.”

Eliminates Manual Sweeping

“The time saving using the brush and collector made the purchase a no brainer, cutting the time needed to clean a bed from 30+ minutes to about 5 minutes, without the need for manual sweeping and the dust was kept down too, which was an added bonus.”

Visit www.terrazzamc.uk or call Jason Smith on 01872 492045.

The winners of GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards 2020 have been announced LIVE! on-line during Glee's Festive Focus Day today.

And the winners are...Watch the LIVE announcement during Glee's Festive Focus Day here or click below

GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards 2020 – The Winners

• The Greatest Christmas Houseplant Team – Sponsored by Woodlodge - £500 stock for the winner – Barton Grange. 
  • Highly Commended: Pengelly, The Old Railway Line

• The Greatest Outdoor Plant and Christmas Tree Team – Sponsored by GTN Bestsellers -subscriptions worth £580 for the winner – Pughs Radyr.
  • Highly Commended: Aylett Nurseries, Barton Grange, Pengelly

• The Greatest Festive Food Hall Team – Sponsored by Garden Radio – 1 years’ service with bespoke messages, worth over £500 for the winner – The Old Railway Line.
  • Highly Commended: Barton Grange, Colemans Garden Centre, Planters Tamworth, Squires Badshot Lea

• The Greatest Christmas Sizzle Team – Sponsored by SOLEX - 2 x Hotel Rooms at SOLEX 2021 for the winner – Altons BBQ World
  • Highly Commended: Hillmount

• The Greatest Christmas Pets Team – Sponsored by Smart Garden Products, Zöon -£500 stock for the winner – The Old Railway Line
  • Highly Commended: Planters Tamworth, Squires Badshot Lea

• The Greatest Christmas Community/Charity Initiative – Sponsored by Kaemingk – A display from their UK showroom for the winner - Pengelly
  • Highly Commended: Daisy Nook, Dobbies, Perrywood, Thetford

• The Greatest Social Media Christmas Marketing Idea – Sponsored by Glee – 2 x Hotel Rooms at Glee 2021 for the winner - Groves
  • Highly Commended: Altons BBQ World, Hillmount, The Old Railway Line

• The Greatest Garden Centre Christmas Video – Sponsored by Premier Decorations - £500 stock for the winner – The Old Railway Line
  • Highly Commended: Bosworths, Glendoick, Pengelly

• The Greatest Winter Garden Care Sales Team – Sponsored by Elho - £500 stock for the winner - Baytree
  • Highly Commended: Lakeside Plant Centre

• The Greatest Covid Safe Christmas Display Team – Sponsored by Global Journey - £500 stock for the winner – Aylett Nurseries, Barton Grange
  • Highly Commended: Baytree

• The Greatest Group Garden Centre Christmas Team – Sponsored by DCUK - £500 stock for the winner – Squires Badshot Lea
  • Highly Commended: British Garden Centres Thatcham

• The Greatest Small Garden Centre Christmas Team - Sponsored by Ascalon - £500 stock for the winner - Pengelly
  • Highly Commended: Jacksdale, Lakeside Plant Centre

• The Greatest Mid-Sized Garden Centre Christmas Team – Sponsored by Kaemingk - A display from their UK showroom for the winner – Busy Bee
  • Highly Commended: Glendoick, Planters Tamworth, Sapcote, The Old Railway Line

• The Greatest Large Garden Centre Christmas Team – Sponsored by Festive - £500 stock for the winner – Barton Grange
  • Highly Commended: Baytree, Hillmount, Perrywood

• The Greatest Christmas Supplier – As voted for by garden centres taking part in The Greatest Christmas Awards - Kaemingk
  • Finalists: Festive, Gisela Graham, Noma - Leisuregrow, Otterhouse, Premier, Smart - Three Kings, Snowtime, Swift Imports

With almost 100 individual entries for the awards submitted before the New Years Eve deadline the judges spent many hours reviewing the entries, scanning websites and social media to produce the following list of Finalists:

Altons, Aylett Nurseries, Barton Grange, Baytree, Bosworths, Busy Bee, Christies of Fochabers, Colemans Garden Centre, Daisy Nook, Dobbies, Garden Centre Overstrand, Glendoick, Grange Farm Nursery, Groves, Haskins, Hillmount, Jacksdale, Lakeside Plant Centre, Millbrook, Old Barn, Otter Nurseries, Pengelly, Perrywood, Planters Tamworth, Planters Bretby, Pughs, Rosebourne - Weyhill, Sapcote, Squires Badshot Lea, St Peters - Worcester, Thatcham - BGC, The Old Railway Line, Thetford, Waresley Park.

See photos from all the Finalist centres below.  Well done to them all!

Watch out for more detail about the winners in future issues of GTN Xtra and the January issue of GTN which will be published later this week.

It’s never too early to get your Christmas strategy in order. Festive Focus Day equips you with everything you need to know to make sure your 2021 Christmas ranges fly off the shelves.

Take a look at Christmas future with forecasters, Trend Bible as they dive into the emerging trends that will define Christmas 2021 using this link or click below

Read GTN's Christmas Special January 2021 Issue on-line here.

In this issue of news and information for garden centre professionals:

The Greatest Christmas Awards 2020, full results and comment.  

Meadow View transforming garden centres.

Whistler Grill’s Modular Kitchen.

Garden Re-Leaf Day 2021.

GTN’s Christmas Directory.

GTN Bestsellers Top 100 Christmas Products Chart.

HTA Column - United Plant Kingdom.

GIMA Column - 2021, another year of challenges & opportunity for garden retail.

with all the news direct to your e-mail inbox.  The best news service every weekend and all the breaking news as it happens.

Subscribe for free using this link

Garden product sales nearly doubled at the start of February with core gardening lines showing the biggest sales growth. Plant feeds occupied five of the top six positions in the GTN Bestsellers Garden Products chart.

Highlights of the week were:

• Evergreen Garden Care Levington Tomorite 1L + 30% Free came straight back in at No 1.
• Doff Affordable Excellence Tomato Feed 400ml + 20% Free was just behind at No 2.
• Growth Technology Orchid Myst 300ml was the highest chart mover of the week, up eleven places to No 12.
• Smart Solar’s Stella Stake Light was the highest new entry at No 3.
• There were two new pot entries from Mims in this week’s chart. Mims Hobnail Patio Pot S2 in at No 15 and Mims Hobnail Patio Pot S1 at No 17.

See the full GTN Bestsellers Top 50 charts, compiled from garden centre Epos data every week, with a years subscription to the printed newsletter for only £145.00 using this link.

In reaction to Thursday night’s meeting between Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove and the vice-president of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic about post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, James Barnes, Chairman of the Horticultural Trades Association said:

“The HTA welcomes recognition by both the UK Government and the European Commission of the need to address all outstanding issues and to find workable solutions, particularly for movement of plants and seeds from GB to Northern Ireland. However, every week lost in finding pragmatic political and practical solutions is causing immense damage to businesses and consumer choice alike. We need to see a reciprocal arrangement on the removal of prohibitions for our industry, not a long-winded official application process."

Early Bird offers may have come to the party later than normal this year but now combined with the first spell of reasonable weather since Christmas sales went crazy last week.

The 451% increase week on week put sales up by 53% on the same week last year and reduced the year to date deficit to less than 50%.

At this rate we’ll be reporting year to date sales ahead of last year by the end of March we expect. Well done to every centre that has got their growing media stocks in early.

Highlights of the week were:

• Evergreen Garden Care Levington Essentials Multi Purpose Compost 50L comes back in at No 1 on the back of Early Bird offers.
• Godwins Premium Multi Purpose Compost 50L is a new entry at No 2.
• Westland Multipurpose Compost with John Innes 50L moves up one place to No 3.

See the full GTN Bestsellers Top 50 charts, compiled from garden centre Epos data every week, with a years subscription to the printed newsletter for only £145.00 using this link.

The HTA’s Ornamental Management Committee (OMC) have agreed to convene a working group to establish and communicate the industry’s future research and development needs, with remit to articulate its findings to Defra and the AHDB.

With the future of horticulture within the AHDB and the anticipated result of the forthcoming ballot being a hot topic of discussion at yesterday’s grower representative committee meeting, it was agreed this was a way for growers to constructively input into the debate on the future of the AHDB. While there are other groups looking at this issue and responding in their own way into the post-ballot process, this group will represent an OMC viewpoint.

The regular ‘state of trade’ agenda item was dominated by members reporting on-going frustration and issues with the current Northern Ireland restrictions and the outdated PEACH import system. One member reported that they were facing a £100K loss in trade due to the plant export restrictions to Northern Ireland. Members backed the HTA’s calls for an urgent change to the current regulations. While the PEACH IT system is in operation until IPAFFS starts, members continue to report user issues. There was a plea for Defra to take on board the feedback about the new IPAFFS and make the necessary changes to accurately reflect our sector’s requirements. Pesticide approvals was another post-Brexit trade issue that is causing consternation.

Martin Emmett, Chairman of the OMC said:“The sustainable future of our ornamental horticulture industry is something we all deeply care about. Whatever the result of the AHDB statutory levy ballot we need to agree an approach that our sector’s research and development needs are recognised and met. As an industry we contribute hugely to the Government’s ‘green growth’ agenda and we need to be appropriately recognised for research and development funding, to keep ornamental horticulture at the top of the Government’s agenda.

“On post-Brexit trade, we need the Government to be responsive and agile in its approach to the issues we are encountering with trade. Political pragmatism needs to prevail on finding solutions to getting GB-based members trading with Northern Ireland. An IT pre-notification system that is fit for purpose and specifically tailored to our needs, is crucial. With fresh produce and cut flowers added to the mix, horticulture will be the largest user of the new IPAFFS."

After numerous quiet weeks for Wildlife and Wild Bird Care sales in the GTN Bestsellers Epos data, the first week of February set a new record high for January, February and March Top 50 Bestselling lines weekly volume sales.

Highlights of the week were:

• Henry Bell Essentials Seed Mix 2kg re-entered the GTN Chart at No 1.
• Westland Peckish Extra Goodness Energy Balls, pack of 50 + 20% Free were the highest placed new entry at No 17.
• DecoPak’s Tall Roosting Nest Pocket was also a new entry at No 37.

See the full GTN Bestsellers Top 50 charts, compiled from garden centre Epos data every week, with a years subscription to the printed newsletter for only £145.00 using this link.

In view of the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the BHETA board has re-scheduled the Exclusively Show 2021 to Tuesday and Wednesday 24^th and 25^thAugust 2021. It was due to take place in June.

Will Jones, Chief Operating Officer of BHETA and Chair of Exclusively said, “The health and well-being of all Exclusively attendees is of paramount importance. We consulted with our exhibitors and visitors and there is a genuine desire for the show to go ahead, but at the right time and in the right place. and there was strong support for a move to August. 

“The Business Design Centre has an existing very well organised set of health and wellbeing protocols and we will confirm them to all stakeholders in the lead up to the Exclusively Show.

“Moving the date provides an opportunity for the industry to gain more confidence as the vaccination programme gathers momentum, and the timing fits with the Autumn buying season. The speed of the vaccine roll-out has given us genuine belief that by August the UK will be back to some form of normality – the pace of the roll-out is continuing to rise and we expect, based on todays’ numbers, that by showtime a majority of UK adults will have had two vaccine shots; and our industry will be able to move forward”. 

BHETA President Alistair Fisher, who is also MD of Exclusively exhibitor Taylor’s Eye Witness said, “The industry is hungry for a show and the extra time until August should allow the vaccine roll-out to really make a difference to the confidence of the nation.  I am looking forward to what will most likely be the first industry show for 18 months, and to welcoming buyers to our stand.”

The Exclusively Show regularly has over 130 companies and 300 brands participating, representing all the key product categories in the housewares sector and many big brand names are part of the show.  Retail visitor interest has been increasing over the past few years, a testimony Exclusively’s ability to evolve.  Tried and tested features such as Trend Displays, Trend Talks and The Brand Showcase, aimed at media visitors, will remain features of the Exclusively Show in 2021.  

Join a free webinar on Tuesday 23 February 2021 at 2pm (CET) to take the pulse of what is happening within China’s ornamental horticulture industry.

FloraCulture International (FCI) magazine, supported by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH), invites ornamental growers and traders worldwide to learn about the Chinese flowers industry.

There will be five presenters for the ‘Understanding and developing ornamental horticulture in China’ webinar who are all key stakeholders ready to illuminate in abundance the opportunities and challenges in this country’s market.

China’s development in recent decades has been truly remarkable. The future continues to look bright, although last year’s signs of growth are briefly moderating due to the severe impact of Covid-19 in the industry.

However, production levels in China are near to standard levels. Currently, China and other Asia Pacific regions are showing hopeful signs of recovery. The economic upturn is coming, and the best proof is skyrocketing shipping costs with people willing to pay exorbitant prices for products sent from China to Europe.

Programme

• Introduction
• A comprehensive overview of ornamental horticulture in China 
• Round table discussion
• Q&A session
• Conclusion and closure

Speakers

• Mr Wouter Verhey, the Agricultural Counsellor at the Dutch Embassy in Beijing. He will discuss the state of China’s ornamentals sector while reflecting on the impact from, and responses to, the coronavirus pandemic.
• Ms Julienne Zhu will represent the Nursery Stock section of the China Flower Association (CFA), the industry’s most potent voice. She will highlight the challenges and opportunities of nursery stock products in the People’s Republic of China and the change and progress this fast-growing sector experienced over the past few decades.
• Ms Katherine Fan Young is the sales manager at Dutch-based Holex, which is arguably among the big players in exporting flowers from the Netherlands to China. Katherine will detail how Holex’s wholly-owned Shanghai office today serves as an important logistics hub where flowers sourced worldwide come together to sell to Chinese shoppers who are always looking for new and niche products.    
• Mr Just Roos will speak on behalf of horticultural engineering company Codema Cultivation Systems from the Netherlands. This company leads the way in supporting ornamentals and fresh produce growers with the right technology. Codema opened its Beijing branch in November 2019 to be closer to their Chinese customers. One of them is AiBiDa for which Codema fits a mega rose farm in Lanzhou with state-of-the-art greenhouse technology.
• Mr Arnoud Touw is ICL Specialty Fertilisers’ Business Lead in Asia for Turf and Ornamental. He will explain why its iconic fertiliser brands Osmocote and Peter Professional are gaining momentum with Chinese growers working with containerised nursery stock and potted plants.

What will you learn during this webinar?

In 60 minutes from your desk, discover how to export in China.

• Size and characteristics of the Chinese market
• Consumer behaviour for exciting new varieties and a rising middle class
• Distribution channels
• Challenges and opportunities for imported flowers
• Competition and collaboration
• Remarks on the export process, phytosanitary procedures and PBR protection.

When

Tuesday 23 February 2021 at 14:00 Central European Summer Time (CET). 21:00 Chinese time. This free, 1.5-hour webinar will provide attendees with anecdotes from industry leaders about overcoming the adversity brought on by Covid-19 protection measures.

Facilitated by experienced webinar organiser, Jungle Talks, the webinar is supported by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH).

In line with our ethos to provide the best possible information and guidance for growers, free of charge, we are looking forward to this webinar as we continue to develop our online resources for growers.

To attend the free webinar register at https://bit.ly/3d2Y8DW
 

Joules, the premium British lifestyle brand, has announced that it has acquired The Garden Trading Company Limited (“Garden Trading”), a digitally led retailer of home and garden products inspired by the British countryside and lifestyle trends (the “Acquisition”).

Nick Jones, CEO of Joules, commented: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Garden Trading, which is a fast-growing and highly complementary brand to Joules in the attractive home, garden & outdoor category. The acquisition will help to increase the Joules customer base, broaden our product offering and strengthen our digital platform, which are three of the Group’s key strategic growth pillars.

“The Garden Trading brand shares similar design-led principles to Joules and, as has been demonstrated through its stand-out popularity on the Friends of Joules digital marketplace over the past 15 months, is highly relevant to our customers and their lifestyles.

“Garden Trading has a fantastic team and culture, which is closely aligned to Joules’. I am delighted to welcome Garden Trading’s team to the Joules family and look forward to working with them all over the coming years.”

Jon Holloway, Founder of Garden Trading, said: “We are delighted to be joining Joules, which is a business and brand I have long admired. Since we started selling through the Friends of Joules digital marketplace more than a year ago it has become increasingly clear how well our products and brand resonate with the Joules customer base. In addition, by working with the Joules team it is clear that we share similar values, culture and customer-centric approach.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues as well as our loyal customers who have helped to develop Garden Trading into the established and popular brand it is today. With the continued dedication of the Garden Trading team alongside the support and infrastructure that Joules offers, I am very confident in the growth opportunities ahead for the Garden Trading brand.”

The Joules website states:

Garden Trading designs its own range of distinctive home, garden and outdoor products that it sells through its own digital platform direct to consumers and to more than 1,000 stockists across the UK. Garden Trading has seen rapid growth in its e-commerce revenue over recent years as it has broadened its product range and increased its customer base. Garden Trading has been a leading seller on the Friends of Joules digital marketplace since Joules launched the marketplace in 2019.

Strategic rationale
The Acquisition supports Joules’ strategy to grow its customer base, broaden its product offer and strengthen its digital platform.

The Acquisition strengthens Joules’ position in the important and fast-growing home, garden & outdoor category. Garden Trading has a close cultural alignment with Joules, and both share the same design-led approach to creating distinctive, quality products that are loved by their customers.

Joules intends to continue to develop and grow the Garden Trading brand and product range whilst also seeing opportunity to leverage Garden Trading’s design and sourcing strengths to develop a broader range of Joules-branded home, garden and outdoor products.

For the year to 30 November 2020, Garden Trading delivered revenue of £16.8 million, up more than 40% on the prior year, and a profit before tax of £2.0 million.

The acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive for Joules FY22 financial year.

Transaction overview

The consideration for the Acquisition is split between an upfront and a deferred element. The upfront consideration is for £9 million subject to certain customary completion adjustments. The upfront consideration is comprised of a £4.5 million cash payment (on a cash free, debt free basis subject to a normalised level of working capital) and 2.83 million new Joules ordinary shares of 1 pence each (“Ordinary Shares”).

The deferred consideration is for up to £3.5 million (of which at least £3 million will be paid in cash and the rest either in cash or Ordinary Shares, at the Group’s discretion), subject to Garden Trading meeting certain targets over the period to 30 November 2021. Any Ordinary Shares issued pursuant to the Acquisition are subject to certain customary lock-up and orderly market arrangements.

Garden Trading’s founder and Managing Director, Jon Holloway, will remain with the business until the end of December 2021.

https://www.joulesgroup.com/

The 2020 Pearson Memorial Medal for outstanding service to the garden industry has been awarded at a surprise, socially distanced presentation to Adam Wigglesworth, Director of Aylett Nurseries and former President of the HTA.

The ongoing Covid pandemic meant the usual level of pomp and ceremony was missing from proceedings but that did not dampen the atmosphere of pride and celebration.

Current HTA President, Boyd Douglas-Davies, visited Aylett’s Hertfordshire garden centre on Friday (5/2) and joined a staff briefing where he surprised everyone with a speech celebrating Adam’s contribution to horticulture over the years.

“You’ll be very familiar with the wonderful things Adam does here for Aylett Nurseries and this area and the community,” Boyd told those gathered.

“But let me tell you a bit about what he has done during his time at the HTA. He was on the Retail Management Committee since it began and was Chair between 2013 and 2016; he became a member of the Commercial Committee in 2017 and continues that commitment today; a Board Member from 2014 to 2019 and was President between 2015-2017. The huge changes Adam made during his time at the HTA were all for the better of the industry and it gives me immense pleasure to present you with this award.”

Receiving the award, Adam commented: “I was completely taken by surprise when presented with the Pearson Memorial medal by Boyd and feel honoured to be the recipient of this year's award. I couldn’t have done it without the support of my fantastic team, who all share the honour.”

The Pearson Memorial Medal for outstanding service to the garden industry has been awarded by the HTA on an annual basis since it was instigated in 1930 in memory of the HTA's first General Secretary, Charles Pearson.

Following a record-breaking 2020, AMES UK says it is experiencing unprecedented demand from customers in the early weeks of 2021. Pre-season orders for aggregates, paving, pots, water features and outdoor heating products are, in many cases, more than double that of the same time last year.

The company already had ambitious plans for future expansion and spent much of the early lockdown investing in a series of measures to significantly expand capacity.

More than £1million has since been invested in an expanded fleet of forklifts and JCB loaders at the Pollington manufacturing site. Jon Wilson, Operations Director said “It was necessary to invest in new equipment to be able to respond to customer demand.”

New Toyota forklifts have proven to be popular with the team at the company’s Pollington site. Scott Davison, forklift operator said “They’re extremely spacious and comfortable with closed in cabs and central heating. They’re also highly manoeuvrable and the best I’ve driven.”

Further investment in headcount and productivity have helped significantly increase manufacturing capacity. Jon continues “We now operate permanent day and night shifts and we’ve significantly increased investment in Engineering to help drive productivity gains which was necessary so that we can serve the record levels of customer demand.”

Paul North, Managing Director believes the investments are worth far more to the business than the increased capacity alone. “Colleague and customer well-being is our highest priority. At AMES UK, we are committed to providing safe and rewarding environments for all our colleagues, and we are entirely focussed on supporting our customers. The investments in infrastructure to date and future investment plans will help us improve colleague engagement and better service our customers.”

As we move into February, gardeners and garden centres are all looking forward to some better weather so they can get out on their plots to get growing. GTN Bestsellers reports sales increasing by 25% during the last week of January and with the weather improving during the first week of February perhaps we’ll get back to sales that are on parity with last year.

As the vaccination programme progresses and the rate of new cases drops people could be starting to plan for the spring and the summer when they will undoubtedly be wanting to use their garden spaces for allowed outdoor gatherings with family and friends.

With that in mind, how will your garden centre merchandising encourage customers to: “Decorate your garden with new plants for a joyous summer with friends and family?” How many ideas can you link plant sales to garden decoration? And how many other sales can roll on from decorating with new plants?

Email your thoughts to: trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk

GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 4

• Garden Products Top 50 – down 41%
• Growing Media Top 50 – down 66%
• Veg-2-Gro Top 50 – down 40%
• Wild Bird & Wildlife Top 50 – down 30%

GTN Bestsellers All Sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 4

• All Plants with Barcode Index – down 30%
• All Items with Barcode Index – down 56%

See the full GTN Bestsellers Top 50 charts, compiled from garden centre Epos data every week, with a year's subscription to the printed newsletter for only £145.00 using this link.

Members of the Garden Centre Association (GCA) have recently elected new members to its board during the organisation’s virtual AGM.  David Yardley and Will Blake join the board and Will Blake is confirmed as Chairman Elect to take over as Chairman following Tammy Woodhouse who takes over in 2022 after Mike Burks the current Chairman.

The AGM meeting took place on February 2 with GCA members in attendance voting for who would join the Executive Committee and continue as the Association’s Treasurer.

Iain Wylie, Chief Executive of the GCA, said: “After so many of our events were cancelled last year for obvious reasons, we were very keen to still be able to hold this year’s AGM, and we did so in a virtual capacity.

“The meeting was a great success, and we would like to thank all the members who gave up their time to join and contribute to the discussions. We heard our GCA Chairman, Mike Burks’ report that 2020 had been a huge challenge, but with great cooperation between the team at the Horticultural Trades Association and the GCA and the way that members had supported each other, showed what a great organisation the GCA is and how important it is.

“Our members also elected two new members to our Executive Committee, these are David Yardley, Chief Executive at the Klondyke Group and Will Blake, who is Director at St Peter’s Garden Centre. We’d like to welcome them both to their new positions.

“Will has been Area Chairman for the Midlands so has sat on the committee for a number of years already, but David joins the committee for the first time. His role in running a group with centres in England, Scotland and Wales will be an invaluable and a unique perspective to add to the committee’s collective experience.”

During the AGM, David Little was also re-elected as Treasurer, however, he did confirm this would be his final year in the role and that he will not be standing again in 2022.

As part of his report, Mike also commented on the Association’s succession plan. He confirmed that current Chairman Elect Tammy Woodhouse, Managing Director of Millbrook Garden Centres will take over in 2022 when his term of office comes to an end and, in turn, Will Blake has agreed to stand as Chairman Elect to follow Tammy.

Ben Harrison of Haskins Garden Centres has agreed to take on the role of Treasurer from next year, when David retires from the role and will be working with David in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.

The GCA represents nearly 200 garden centres nationwide.

Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.

For other information, please call 01244 952170, visit www.gca.org.uk, log on to www.facebook.com/pages/GardenCentreAssociation or follow the organisation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GC_Association.

Spring is in the air, and with it, a sense of hope. Although this current lockdown has been exceptionally challenging for many businesses, garden and farm centres have been in the fortunate position of being allowed to stay open.

With limited destination retail experiences for people to enjoy, no doubt this has reaped the benefits of a wider demographic and increased footfall. But it’s important to maintain this when mainstream retail opens up again.

Specialist designers, Catering Design Group (CDG), walk us through some fresh ideas to maintain and nurture growth ahead.

Hue got me at hello

• Colour can be a form of non-verbal messaging, subliminally affecting how we feel when we walk into a space. 
• Having the right colour palette not only reflects your ethos and values but can enhance the customer experience. Visiting a garden or farm centre is one of life’s pleasures so it’s important that you meet expectations in every area of your centre, including your catering operation. Naturally, this space should complement your retail and outdoor spaces. 
• One way of doing that is by using colour creatively and using the psychology of colour for maximum input. A change of colour is a quick, cost-effective and impactful way of refreshing your eating spaces.

A story of sustainability 

• Over the last 12 months, there has been a shift in how we view the world and what is important to us as humans, such as kindness, interest in community, health, wellbeing and the environment. There’s an opportunity for garden centres to embrace this and reflect these values in your food offer and surroundings.
• Everything from natural textures and organic shapes to the use of patterns inspired by nature tell a story about your ethos.  
• Even the tiniest finishing touches like your choice of serving bowls, your menu design or light fittings can spark an association with sustainability in a customer’s mind, speaking volumes about your quality standards, values and sustainability. 
• These design elements let visitors know that you care about the environment, energy efficiency and the community in which you operate. 
• Think about placing story boards with pictures and details about some of your local food growers and artisan producers to share the provenance of your ingredients. 

Think technology

• There is no doubt that the garden centre visitor demographic is changing, with younger people now waking up to the joys of gardening and outdoor spaces. 
• Unfortunately, there is also no doubt that social distancing will be with us for another while so anything you can do to make the customer experience safer and more convenient is a plus. 
• A well-designed App for ordering food will reduce queues, waiting times and transaction handling for this techno-savvy customer-base. Special offers and loyalty bonuses can be easily added, with the potential to increase sales and repeat business. 
• With the growth virtual platforms and on-line purchasing, all generations have become far more tech savvy so tap into that as there is a big opportunity for garden and farm centres to use technology to drive business growth. 
• The use of technology is relevant to the way that we design the restaurant/remote food areas. For example, if customers pre-order via an App, we will be thinking about collection points or table delivery from a design perspective.

Embrace the great outdoors

• Even when lockdown restrictions lift, many of us won’t feel entirely comfortable eating together in an indoor restaurant or café. 
• Giving visitors a choice of interesting eating spaces throughout the centre will add to their overall experience.
• For example, you could consider introducing moveable pods to broaden your food offer such as a takeaway juice bar, hot beverage station or a quirky place to sell street food or pizzas for increased revenue. 
• The advantage of smaller, moveable pods is that these can tailored to suit your food offer, style and branding. 
• Attractive outside seating areas also offer more flexible options for anything from takeaway picnics to al fresco working lunches or meetings.

Nurturing Potential

Ideas & inspiration to grow your catering operation

To request a copy of CDG’s free booklet on how to make the most of your garden or farm centre catering space, please contact Steve Hutchings

steve.hutchings@cateringdesign.co.uk

Catering Design Group (CDG) is one of UK’s leading restaurant and commercial kitchen design companies, offering a full design service to clients throughout the retail, leisure, hospitality and education sectors. http://www.cateringdesign.co.uk If you would like to know more about how CDG can support your vision, contact Steve Hutchings, director of CDG on 07736 479342 or email steve.hutchings@cateringdesign.co.uk

Wild Bird Care specialist Honeyfield’s have introduced a major manufacturing capability to their production site in Driby, Lincolnshire.

Now, Honeyfield’s will be producing Suet Pellets and Suet Blocks in-house and launching a refreshed Suet offering to the market. 

This development sees Honeyfield’s, a brand backed by numerous years of Bird Care expertise, further strengthen their supply chain. This means the raw ingredients are now quality UK sourced for the new improved recipes of Suet Pellets and Blocks and have been formulated and tested as a unique blend that birds will love. 

A new unique Suet formulated by experts

The Suet Pellets are available in two flavours - Mealworms & Insect and Fruity Flavour which are available in 4 sizes to fit all consumer needs, 750g, 2kg, 3kg Tub and 12.6kg.

Suet Blocks are also available in the same two flavours as the new Suet Pellets (Mealworms & Insect and Fruity Flavour) and are available as 300g single blocks, Packs of 4 blocks and a Mixed Pack of 8 (4 Fruity Flavour and 4 Mealworm & Insect).

Honeyfield’s have based these unique recipes on research and taste tests which underpin the brands palatability. Boasting a high fat content, the new recipe contains Nyjer Seed, which especially enhances the nutritional benefit to birds. In addition to this, Honeyfield’s only uses natural dye’s in the Suet range. These improvements to Suet Pellets and Blocks set’s Honeyfield’s apart from other Wild Bird Care brands by including the unique ingredient of Nyjer Seed within Suet products and being the only bird care brand within Britain to use only natural dyes.

There for customers in challenging times

Whilst last year bought many challenges to the industry, Honeyfield’s continued to service customers with their high-quality products. Throughout the year, numerous suet projects arose and allowed for Honeyfield’s to create their in-house suet operation and continue to develop and perfect their unique recipes. The development of the UK based manufacturing of their suet products has many benefits to the customer, amongst which is the opportunity for customers to receive regular suet deliveries due to the removal of a step in the supply chain. 

James Jackson, category manager of Honeyfield’s spoke of the developments saying: "We are really excited to add another manufacturing capability to our range, this allows us to choose the highest quality UK sourced ingredients for our Suet range - as we already do for most of our seed range where possible."

Dedication to innovation, backed by traditional values

Since Honeyfield’s was founded in 2015, the company has continued to innovate and grow whilst keeping their traditional values at the heart of what they do. This dedication to innovation has extended through to the new Suet range with the brand having plans to not only grow their brand but to grow the Wild Bird Care market by creating new ideas towards feeding the birds.

The new developments mean that Honeyfield’s are able to constantly innovate, test and create new products in-house.

In addition to Honeyfield’s plans to revolutionise the Wild Bird Care market, the new Suet production operation means that anyone who requires their own brand suet products can benefit from the wealth of experience, high quality ingredients and specialist tried-and-tested recipes that Honeyfield’s has to offer. 

Sam Marriage, managing director of WHM Pet Group said: "As the weather remains cold and food sources for birds are scarce alongside uncertainty within politics and the potential economic effect, our UK based suet operation couldn’t have come at a better time.

"We are already innovating and creating new, exciting products within the suet range and beyond. We are looking forward to sharing our hard work with the market in 2021."

For more information visit www.honeyfieldswildbird.co.uk

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In advance of the launch of GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards 2020, GTN's Northern Correspondent, Steve Myatt, paid a visit to Barton Grange to bring you this first GTN Xtra Christmas photo tour.

To add your garden centre Christmas photo tour to GTN Xtra simply get snapping and enter The Greatest Christmas Awards.  See the categories here.  Send an e-mail to trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk for more details

Here's a sneak preview of the photo tour submitted by Squires at Badshot Lea as part of their entry in GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards 2020.

There's over £7,000 worth of prizes to be won in GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards 2020 so get snapping and enter your garden centre team today!

Full details are here.

Here's a sneak preview of Perrywoods photo tour entry in GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards for 2020, including the vital ingredient for all entries, team photos. See the gallery of photos below.  Apologies for the wrong photos being included in yesterdays edition.

There's over £7,000 worth of prizes to be won in GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards so get snapping and enter today.  Full details can be found here.

Charles Stubbs, Lewis Fox and Nemanja Tintor, along with the rest of the BGC team, were proud as punch yesterday as their 58th centre at Thatcham in Berkshire opened.

The centre had been handed back to the landlords during the Wyevale Garden Centres sale of the century in and closed in September 2019 as the owners looked for a new leaseholder.  British Garden Centres took on the site in September 2020 and since then have refreshed the centre, enclosing a walkway at the Restaurant end to allow for extra covers, extending the covered sales area out into the planteria and hard surfacing the overflow car parking area which was previously a field.

See GTN Xtra's exclusive photo tour of the new centre below:

Haskins Garden Centre in Snowhill, Crawley, has opened its doors to customers following a 12-month refurbishment costing £15m.

The new centre boasts a retail space of 11,813 sq.m., including an outdoor plant area and 440-seat restaurant complete with a newly installed pizza oven. Additional space has also been created to accommodate 170 restaurant guests on an outdoor patio.

Up to 70 new jobs have been created to accommodate the centre's expansion. Car parking has increased to 346 spaces.  See GTN Xtra's photo tour of the new centre below.

Chief executive Julian Winfield said the Snowhill team worked tirelessly to ensure the centre was able to remain open for the majority of the project, with minimal disruption.

“We can't wait to receive our customers' feedback on our new and improved facilities,” he added. “Over the years, we have built a loyal customer following and we are proud to be able to give back to them in this way with our new expanded centre.”

Haskins acquired the Snowhill site in 2003, inheriting a number of ageing buildings.

Haskins also has centres in Ferndown in Dorset, West End in Southampton and Roundstone in West Sussex. The family business recently acquired Forest Lodge Garden Centre, Bird World and Garden Style in Farnham.

Pictured (left to right): Julian Winfield, Jamie Haskins, Ally Haskins (married to Jamie) and Warren Haskins, the group's chairman. 

The opening event was attended by the current GCA Chairman Mike Burks and three past Chairs; Warren Haskins, Sue Allen and Julian Winfield.

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 newsletter.

As the year goes on we give sales volume comparisons with 2018 as well as 2019 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 up-to-date gardening sales analysis that has already helped many UK garden centres increase their sales.  To subscribe call 07973 504214, e-mail karen@pottingshedpress.co.uk or buy on-line using this link.

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

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

Highlights of the GTN Wild Bird & Wildlife 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.

Get the GTN Bestsellers charts in full every week in the GTN Bestsellers newsletters for only £145.00.

GTN Bestsellers is the only industry source of weekly garden centre sales information, collating Epos data from centres with an aggregate turnover in excess of £100m.

Use the weekly Garden Products and Growing Media Top 50 sales volumes charts to plan your hotspot and other promotions and ensure you have the right products in stock to satisfy the needs of your customers.

For further information contact karen@pottingshedpress.co.uk or call 07973504214.

Buy your subscription today and start receiving the GTN Bestsellers charts this week.

Cat and dog brands triumphed at the Product of the Year 2021 Awards, the UK’s largest celebration of product innovation – voted for by 10,000 consumers and conducted in partnership with leading data and insights company, Kantar.

Every year, pet products win multiple awards, and this year was no different with both Vanish Oxi Action Urine Destroyer Pet Expert and Sheba Fine Flakes in Gravy both taking home awards for innovation within their categories.

With pet owners spending more time at home than ever before, many have turned their attention to pet care. Now more than ever, we’re considering the wellbeing of our furry friends and brands are responding with an array of pet nutrition and care items.

Now in its 17th year, the Product of the Year Awards continue to provide a unique platform to celebrate the products we use every day but often take for granted for their quiet innovation. No Awards are complete without a ceremony, and while unable to bring attendees together among the Art Deco finery of the Sheraton Grand, Product of the Year hosted the event virtually with award-winning actor, writer and comedian, Sally Phillips, on hand to announce the winners. And for those brands that were fortunate to ‘walk away’ with a coveted trophy, they also win the right to feature the iconic red Product of the Year logo - an instantly recognisable symbol of product excellence.

Commenting on the win, Kathrin Peterssen, Vanish Brand Manager, Reckitt Benckiser, says: “With pet ownership on the rise, our award-winning Urine Destroyer Pet Expert trigger couldn’t have come at a better time! It’s the perfect ally for pet potty training: it cleans all types of pet messes, neutralises odours and even helps prevent remarking.”

“Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes and in what has been a challenging year for everyone, we have seen brands big and small step up and stand out for some truly exceptional products” Says Helga Slater, MD, Product of the Year “From the small, incremental improvements made by established brands to those breaking new ground, we are happy to once again be able to shine a light on the very best product innovation and we are thrilled for all the winners.”

As well as taking home the much-coveted Product of the Year trophy, the winners also have the right to display the iconic red logo which is responsible for an increase in sales from between 10 and 15%.

Product of the Year is the UK’s largest independent survey into product innovation with 10,000 consumers voting in a survey conducted by Kantar. Winning manufacturers can take heart that 86% of consumers say the endorsement of the Product of the Year logo makes them more likely to buy the product, and as many as 64% of consumers recognise the logo.

ChickenGuard, British manufacturer and global distributor of automatic chicken coop doors, saw sales nearly double on the previous record-breaking year of 2019.

After the first coronavirus lockdown, ChickenGuard released research showing that there had been a boom in chicken keeping, and it seems this uptake is here to stay. 

Benefiting from the rise in popularity of keeping hens, ChickenGuard sold more than 70,000 units throughout 2020 – an 81% increase on 2019.

Ben Braithwaite, Inventor and Founder of ChickenGuard, said: “After a year that has been a struggle for so many, the whole team at ChickenGuard is extremely proud of the growth we have seen in sales. We saw a huge increase in sales in 2019, so to build on that again in 2020 was fantastic and testament to the hard work by a great team of people manufacturing in the UK. We are delighted to have now sold over 200,000 units.”

Living up to their PetQuip Exporter of the Year 2020 accolade, the Cambridge-based business were pleased to add 15 new countries to their extensive exporting list, which now totals 65 countries. To further facilitate the growth in exporting and mitigate the risk of Brexit, ChickenGuard has also opened a European organisation with a warehouse in the Netherlands which will supply product to countries within the EU avoiding what could have been significant business disruption.

Ben Braithwaite added: “Over the last several years we have strived to be market-leading exporters and were pleased to be recognised for this by PetQuip in 2020. Throughout the year we added 15 new countries to our export list, including places like Panama and Russia, and are looking forward to continuing to add to this throughout 2021. Assisting with our ability to export, the opening of our European organisation, with a warehouse in the Netherlands, will further support us in our smooth exporting procedures.”  

Despite the addition of a European organisation, all ChickenGuard units are made in the UK, at the company’s headquarters in Cambridge. This enables the business to maintain stringent quality standards, reliable shipping methods and a high level of customer service. 

To find out more about the products visit www.chickenguardtrade.com.

The Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association has sent a letter to government ministers seeking urgent action to resolve problems of importing livestock and products into the UK which have arisen since the end of the Brexit transition period in January.

In the letter Dominic Whitmee, chief executive of OATA, said: “Businesses throughout the UK continue to be impacted by the covid pandemic and are now experiencing reduced trade and increased administrative and financial burdens arising from EU exit. 

“Inefficiencies at the border do not just have implications for importers, they affect everyone in the supply chain from delivery drivers to retail staff. Every problem or delay ends with a cost that is footed by businesses along the supply chain and creates potential risks for animal welfare. These issues must also inevitably be creating a stressful working environment for your own staff. 

“I appreciate there are challenges involved in resolving these issues but those I have highlighted are not insurmountable and would go a long way to improving animal welfare, supporting UK businesses and helping your own staff’s wellbeing. 

“Their resolution simply requires the investment of resources, an element of pragmatism and a commitment to improve the services provided by the agencies concerned – whom, it should be noted, charge significant fees for their services. 

“For the sake of businesses, their staff, your staff and for the betterment of animal welfare I urge you to resolve the issues faced by businesses in our sector.”

The full letter can be viewed at https://ornamentalfish.org/wp-content/uploads/Letter-to-SoS-Defra-border-issues-Feb-2021.pdf

The Pet Industry Federation (PIF) has announced that Virtual Petindex (VPI), the UK pet industry’s virtual trade show, is now open for visitor registrations.

Taking place from Tuesday 16 – Tuesday 30 March 2021, with two ‘live’ days scheduled for 16 and 17 March, VPI will provide a unique platform for visitors to access new suppliers without all the associated costs of visiting a traditional trade show. The event will engage pet industry exhibitors and visitors from all over the world in one virtual venue and will enable exhibitors to talk to trade visitors through live interaction tools which can be accessed from any device.

At VPI, trade visitors can access:

• Free registration
• Webinars and presentations from industry experts
• New products
• Product promotions and discounts
• Online ordering
• Real time communication with exhibitors

A fantastic line-up of webinars has been created to complement the trade show, offering high quality talks for pet professionals on a range of subjects. These can be watched free of charge at VPI once you have registered to attend. Some of the webinars available to view exclusively at Virtual Petindex include:

• Dr Sean Wensley, PDSA: How can we Improve the Wellbeing of the UK's Pet Dogs, Cats and Rabbits?
• Hannah Capon, veterinary surgeon: Not Just a Disease of the Senior Dog - Canine Osteoarthritis
• Louise Moran, Bruce's Doggy Daycare: Time to Chill - Managing Downtime in Dog Daycare
• Shannah Cantillon, Pet Business Insurance: Your Pet Business Insurance: What you Need to Know.
• Fleur Maitland LCGI, The Clip Joint: Clippity Snip! A Snap-tastic Salon Trim

In addition, there are a number of live ‘round-table’ discussions taking place at certain times, which visitors can attend and put their questions to those taking part:

Tuesday 16 March – 12pm

Making Visual Merchandising Work for You
The panel will discuss the relevance of visual merchandising and how it impacts customer experience and subsequent sales. So far confirmed are: Mark Johnson, Smurfit Kappa PLC; Peter Roy, Natures Menu; and Rob Brown, Browns Natural Pet Store.

Tuesday 16 March – 3pm

Pet Retailing Around the World
The panel will discuss the difference in retailing across the globe and investigate how to attract new customer and engage with existing customers in the face of changing customer trends. So far confirmed are: Phil Jones, Dubai Pet Food (Dubai); Michael Levy, Pet Food Express (USA); Dean Richmond, Pet Family (UK).

Wednesday 17 March – 1pm

The Impact of TV Programmes on the Pet Grooming Sector
This panel discussion will investigate how the public perception of dog grooming has changed as a result of TV shows. So far confirmed are: Stuart Simons, Groom Dog City; Jody Gordon, The Animal Welfare Consultancy; Verity Hardcastle, Shampooches of Harrogate and Colin Taylor, Colin Taylor Grooming.

To find out more about the VPI, including additional webinar details; and to register to attend, please visit https://vpi.vfairs.com/

You can also contact Daniel.everett@petfederation.co.uk, or telephone +44 (0)1234 224507 for more information.