After the devastating fire that caused the loss of over £20m of stock and the complete Daventry warehouse last week, Gardman are planning first shipments for week commencing 26th March.  In a statement issued to GTN Xtra this morning Gardman say:

"Following the fire at our warehouse in Daventry on 12th March, we can confirm that we will use our warehouse at Kings Lynn to supply customers until a permanent warehousing solution has been identified. Through next week, we will divert our stock sat at UK ports and stock arriving from overseas to the Kings Lynn site. We are also planning to supply an essential range of Wild Bird Care products from our UK and European suppliers, again through our Kings Lynn facility. We estimate it will take us five days to get our operation up and running. Therefore, we are planning first shipments w/c 26th March. We will confirm the exact details of the range next week."
 
"In the meantime, we continue to liaise with Northamptonshire Police and the other emergency services and remain thankful that there were no injuries."
 
"We have received many expressions of support from our customers and suppliers and we would like to thank you all for your patience during this difficult period as we put our recovery plan into action."
 
"We will continue to update you as we progress via our website www.gardman.co.uk"

A Gardman spokesman added: "We're going to work through the detail of orders tomorrow and through the week. We'll communicate daily to ensure we're giving our customers the most up to date information. Sorry we can't be more specific until we regroup tomorrow."

GTN Xtra Comment

We send our sincere support to the team at Gardman as they work through their business recovery plans. When we met with the Gardman team in February they told us they had £21million of stock in their 414,000 sq foot warehouse at the time, £5m more than usual to allow for the change in warehousing.  The building which cost an estimated £30 million had spaces for 75,000 pallets and there were 25 vehicles arriving every day with deliveries from the UK and Europe and containers from the Far East.

Looking through the gallery of photos we took that day (see some below) it's easy to see how the fire spread once it took hold as just the stocks of bamboo canes, rolls of screening and bird tables alone would create an inferno, let alone the thousands of cardboard boxes full of products.  

There is no way the rest of the industry can make up for over £20million of stock lost in the fire just like that so there will undoubtedly be some shortages of products until stocks and supplies are re-plenished. 

Fortunately garden centres are great at selling plants, coffee, cake, gifts, clothing and much more, creating wonderful retail experiences, so we’re sure there will be plenty of creative thinking going on to make sure sales opportunities are still maximised and customers satisfied.

On behalf of all at Garden Trade News and the whole UK garden retailing industry we wish the Gardman team well.