GTN Xtra - GTN Xtra - Issue 6 2015

Family-owned Notcutts Garden Centres have appointed former Hobbs and M&S executive Nicky Dulieu as non-executive chairman. An early task will be to find a new CEO for the group....

Retail theft highest for a decade says BRC

The impact of theft on UK retailers has reached its highest level in a decade according to this year’s BRC Retail Crime Survey, released this week...

Better start than 2013 but slightly down on 2014

Colder weather in January this year has seen volume sales run slightly below last year’s levels, but ahead of January 2013 when there were prolonged periods of snow, according to GTN Bestsellers data...

Don't call us on a Monday, advises B&Q's Tim Clapp...

Tim Clapp, Wyevale Garden Centres ex-head of horticulture and now lead buyer at B&Q, has advised growers to “be honest, innovate and share problems early” when negotiating with retailers – and never call on a Monday...

Vitax win in the orchid feed bestsellers stakes

Post-Christmas orchid feed product sales are the big story of this week’s GTN Bestsellers Garden Products chart. Nine items feature in the Top 50 with Vitax Orchid Drip Feeders taking the No 1 spot for the first time...

The Journey continues at Bents

The latest phase in the Bents journey has been completed and the Centre has announced the opening of six new retail departments including leading outdoor clothing retailer Trespass and arts and craft specialists C-Craft...

For the Rising Stars, Monday is the final challenge

After eight months of hard graft, the five finalists in the Garden Centre Association’s Rising Stars programme, sponsored by Westland, are preparing to face their ultimate challenge on Monday...

Briers new products notch up four Top 50 best-sellers

Briers made an instant impact in the GTN Bestsellers chart in the new year, with four of its most recently launched products appearing in the Top 50 for the past two weeks...

Left: Purple bamboo gloves, this week's No.26

Hort Aid campaign plans revealed

The horticultural charity Perennial has confirmed the first details of its Hort Aid fundraising activity for 2015. They include a mud run, a Three Peaks challenge, a 10k Run and the second Go Green for Hort Aid campaign...

Above: highlights from the 2014 campaign

Deco-Pak ready Spring Fair bird line launches

Deco-Pak make their second appearance at Spring Fair next month with an extended Garden Bazaar range of birdhouses and feeders and a number of show-only promotions and competition opportunities...

Gardening celebs get ready for 2015 Greenfingers Garden Re‐Leaf Quiz

Horticultural celebrities from TV and radio are busy recording questions for the 2015 Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day Quiz at the moment, and garden centres who sign up to take part in what is set to be the biggest and best quiz yet can take advantage of the ‘early bird’ entry fee of just £50 - if they sign up before 1st January 2015...

The Top 100 most-read stories of 2014

It was another year of momentous change for the garden centre industry - and, predictably, it was the troubles of the former Solus business and the latest re-shaping of the Wyevale Garden Centres group that topped the list of GTN Xtra's best-read stories...

GTN Xtra Content Popularity 2014
Rank	Story - Issue No.
1	Solus Garden & Leisure goes into administration - Issue 28 2014 - Breaking News
2	Scotts Miracle-Gro purchase Solus brands - Issue 41 2014 - Breaking News
3	Solus 'close to a deal' with new investors - updated - Issue 26 2014
4	Redundancies, resignations and new appointments...it has been a dramatic week at Wyevale - Issue 53 2014
5	Comment on the Solus-Scotts situation from leading garden centre owners and buying groups - Issue 21 2014
6	Dismay as The Garden Centre Group stores shut at 5pm - Issue 5 2014
7	Scotts & Solus partnership off - Issue 20 2014 - More Breaking News
8	Scotts and Solus in negotiations to join forces - Issue 12 2014 - Breaking News
9	Solus reviews options following Scotts deal breakdown - Issue 22 2014 - Solus update
10	Administrators make 91 redundant at Solus to stem losses - Issue 30 2014

See the full Top 100 with links to stories

GTN Dec 2014 - Jan 2015

Garden Trade News

Make the most of Big Garden Bird Watch Weekend

Savvy pet department managers should be taking full advantage of the ‘noise’ surrounding this week-end’s Big Garden Bird Watch...

Taylors are flavour of the month

Onion sets and seed potatoes from Taylors Bulbs are the flavours of the moment in the GTN Bestsellers Veg-2-Gro chart...

Jack’s magical domination continues

Jack’s Magic from Westland looks set to dominate the GTN Bestsellers Growing Media chart for January again.

'Changing' Sinclair turns in £1.9m profit

Sinclair’s fortunes took a turn for the better in the full year to 30 Setpember 2014, with a pretax profit of £1.95m following the previous year’s £1.67m loss. Turnover was down fractionally from £46.5m to £46.2m. The board decided not to pay a dividend.

CRoP Clinics to help HTA members save money

The HTA will be holding Cost Reduction Programme (CRoP) Clinics at the end of February, where HTA members can meet CRoP partners and learn how to reduce costs to their business. Garden Radio is one of the partners taking part in the clinics...

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