New category The Greatest Christmas Sizzle, introduced to acknowledge the efforts of garden centres selling barbecues to customers for cooking their Christmas turkey, was won by Armitages Pennine.

"We've found that an increasing number of our customers are cooking their Christmas dinners on their barbecues," said Will Armitage, of Armitages Pennine. "We saw this as an opportunity and have reacted accordingly. This award is recognition of the work we have put into this area.

"Our Christmas display extended to barbecues and we produced gift hampers for barbecue fans. The gift hampers included Weber accessories, barbecue sauces from the food hall and beers. They were received really well by our customers."

Gold winner: Armitages Pennine

Silver winners: Cadbury Garden & Leisure and Garden Pride

The finalists: Armitages Pennine, Ayletts, Cadbury Garden & Leisure, Fermoys, Garden Pride



Cadbury Garden & Leisure (above) and Garden Pride (below) were silver winners.