What do we know about Kevin Bradshaw, The Garden Centre Group’s new CEO, who takes up his post on Monday week? He’s quite high profile, so if you dig around, it won't take you long to discover that the man whom Terra Firma have tasked with taking TGCG to the next level is a seriously big gun.

His tenure of the MD’s chair at Avis UK has been well-documented. It cemented his reputation as a turnaround expert, following a major transformation of the car rental company’s operating business on these shores.

He knows all about the media, too, so you can expect him to bring his 10 years experience at Reuters, latterly as MD of the Enterprise Information Division, to bear on internal and external communications at TGCG.

His early career with Kalchas Group of strategy consultants gave him skills in delivering projects to retailers, so he will be familiar with the development challenges faced by large retail groups.

Terra Firma made it clear that their new man should know how to handle a major multi-site business with a large workforce. The UK Avis and Budget business employed 1,500 people across 210 sites so there are parallels on a TGCG scale. After all, the group’s non-executive chairman, Stephen Murphy, is on record as saying he envisages adding up to 70 more big garden centres.

At this stage, Mr Bradshaw doesn’t need to know much about gardening (in the organic sense), but apparently, he has a John Deere tractor in his garage, so it’s fair to assume he has a garden with a big lawn. And as we all know, the garden centre industry can become addictive….

§Two things you probably didn't know about Kevin Bradshaw: his first job was washing down machinery in a frozen chip factory – and he is reported to have said his ideal celebrity date would be Charlize Theron.

(§Courtesy of Business Car. Use this link to see their Q&A: http://www.businesscar.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3308)