The Notcutts Group Limited Board. (L-R) Bridget McIntyre, Chairman; Julian Herbert, Non-Executive Director; Mark Haddock, Chief Financial Officer; Caroline Notcutt, Vice Chairman; and Nick Burrows, CEO. [Credit/Copyright: Nick Ilott]
Notcutts has seen growth in like-for-like sales and profit during 2024/25. Annual turnover at £80.5m was up £1.9m (+2.4%) on the previous year. Comparable operating profit, taking into account exceptional items, saw an increase from £0.2m in 2023/24 to £1.1m in 2024/25. Carbon emissions reduced in the year to bring Notcutts annual intensity ratio down to 29.69tCO2e per £m of revenue. NPS (Net Promoter Score) improved to 71 in the year.
Commenting on these results, Nick Burrows CEO said “The continuing backdrop of geopolitical instability, high interest rates, consumer spending restraint and supply cost pressures meant for another year of challenging trading conditions. Despite these challenges the business once again achieved growth in both sales and comparable profit measures in the year. We also saw a continued improvement in our customer satisfaction measure with our best ever NPS score of 71. Similarly encouraging is the reduction in our carbon emissions for another year.”
Burrows added, “Whilst not material in the year itself, we are now faced with additional employer cost pressures that have arisen from the government's 2024 Autumn Budget changes. These have had the effect of adding £1.5m to the annual running costs of the business from April 2025. As a consequence, we needed to re-evaluate our cost base and this led to a restructure programme in parts of the business which both mitigated against these new costs and sought added efficiencies from our newly introduced stock management system.”
Notcutts Woodbridge: Final Redevelopment Phase.
Burrows also commented “The new financial year has started strongly as we, like others in our sector, have enjoyed the most favourable conditions for gardening for some years. We are determined to continue providing a strong garden centre and restaurant proposition that our customers rate highly and we will continue to invest to improve our customer experience. Last year saw us extend a number of our restaurants and reconfigure retail areas to accommodate expanding clothes, food and gifts departments. Work is currently underway at our Woodbridge garden centre to improve and extend our retail areas – a project that will represent the final phase of a total redevelopment of Notcutts’ first garden centre which originally opened in 1958. Two further solar installations are planned later this year in Oxford and Ditchling (Garden Pride) as we continue initiatives to bring our carbon footprint down further.”
Caroline Notcutt, Vice Chairman stressed the importance that Notcutts places on creating the right atmosphere and culture in which colleagues can succeed and enjoy their roles. “Engagement with colleagues, at all levels within the business, is so important and we achieve this through a variety of means. These include surveys, listening groups, meetings and conferences, newsletters and regular visits by senior leaders to garden centres. Colleague groups have also participated in strategy development sessions and join monthly Executive Team meetings to contribute ideas and suggestions on subjects such as customer experience excellence, development projects, health and safety and initiatives related to ESG. Our programme of monthly and annual awards allows us to recognise and celebrate the achievements of colleagues, and these are featured in our regular team newsletters. We have also forged strong partnerships with a number of partner organisations to ensure a range of wellbeing services are in place for colleagues who may need to draw on such support.”
Bridget McIntyre, Chairman added “I continue to be delighted that our well-established approach to succession planning is bearing fruit with further key senior operational leadership roles having been filled by our own internal candidates. We offer a range of leadership training, coaching and personal development support to colleagues at all levels in Notcutts and it’s terrific that this can lead to real career openings and progression for people within our organisation.”
Bridget McIntyre, also commented that “All Notcutts garden centres and our Support Office maintain close relationships within our local communities supporting multiple charities and schools. This is a key part of our ESG commitment. We are into the fourth year of our charitable partnership with The Green Light Trust, whose aim is to ensure everyone has equitable access to the power of nature. Working with people of all ages, often more disadvantaged members of our communities, through organised outdoor activities in woodlands and green spaces, The Green Light Trust’s mission is perfectly aligned with that of Notcutts.”
