“You must question everything you do,” he says. “Attention to detail is key, whether it concerns merchandising, the products you buy or the design of the centre. You have to ask yourself, what would make us different from our competitor?"

Blue Diamond bought Grosvenor near Chester earlier this year, and already the garden centre has seen many changes.

And Alan promises that the garden centre's Christmas display will be the best it has ever been.

"I'm particularly pleased with the elf display. You won't have seen anything like it in the UK. We found an American supplier and the quality is of the highest standard."

For the full interview with Alan (pictured below) see the November issue of Garden Trade News.

Roll up, roll up, it's time for skating, circuses and spooky zoos at garden centres for half term week.

GTN's intrepid reporter Roger Crookes visited Cadbury Garden & Leisure yesterday to photograph the grand opening of their ice rink.  Thankfully there were skaters from the Bristol Skating Club to put on a display so Roger didn't have to "skate" for the camera.  Centre manager Paul Butchers did make it onto the ice, but only with the support of a "happy penguin."

Roger reported a fantastic atmosphere - the alpine ambience more than slightly helped by the sudden arctic spell in the weather.  There were large numbers of families enjoying the occasion, and it was great to see good queues in the restaurant and main garden centre tills.  As well as being atmospheric the Ice Rink has a commercial focus with plenty of add on sale opportunities.


Further east from Cadbury, Whitehall Lacock opened their half tem activities on Thursday 25th October with Ginnetts circus coming to town.


And in spooky South London, Woodcote Green have a Spooky Zoo experience, including Halloween music from Garden Radio, which according to their website is fully booked out for every day of half term week.

We'd love to know about your half term activities and events.  Send us details and photographs and we'll publish a compendium of activity next week: trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

Upgrades to restaurants and toilet facilities have been earmarked for major investment by the Notcutts Group, CEO Andy King revealed this week.

He said catering had played a massive role in pulling back lost plant sales revenue this summer. “While we can’t say we weatherproofed the business, we took steps to improve all our indoor ranges and that has worked extremely well for us,” he said. “Catering performs better when the weather is poor. When the sun is shining, people tend to run in, buy their plants and go home. But they spend more time in the restaurant when it rains.”

King also revealed that Notcutts, who acquired five garden centres from the North West Farmers group four years ago, are targeting the acquisition of 10 independent garden centres over the next three years. “We would run them as Notcutts centres but retain their local identity and offer owners continued involvment if they wanted,” he said. “Selling a family business is a big decision but this offers anyone who might have been eyeing retirement but is not quite sure about it an alternative way forward.”

He said the sucessful integration of the NWF centres had given the group the confidence to expand further. “We still have most of the staff and three of the managers,” he said. “We’ve kept their local identity of the centres but brand them as ‘part of the Notcutts family’.

Read the full Andy King interview in the November issue of Garden Trade News, available from 5 November.

This year’s wash-out Spring has given urgency to many garden centre owners’ desire to, if not weather-proof their centres, at least reduce their dependence on plants and gardening goods, writes Malcolm Scott of Malcolm Scott Consultants.

It’s not just the larger groups, who have shareholders to please, but equally the independent garden centres which have seen costs rise over the past five years without any commensurate rise in profitability.

Bigger restaurants and cafés are now a given. It would seem that as long as the quality and price of the food is good, this, together with free, safe car parking, will always woo the important retired and female shoppers.  If high gross margins are maintained, this can offset the higher staff costs associated with catering, and profit as well as turnover can be created. From a planning point of view, in many cases where the restaurant is a subsidiary part of the garden centre and offered as part of the retail experience, then as planning consultants we have a case we can make to the Local Planning Authority to grant planning approval.

So far, so good. The problems arise with food retailing. Food sales are accommodated in town centres and edge of town centres or, under strict planning approvals, in out-of-town supermarkets.  Farm shops, admittedly, are not located in town centres but they have arisen from an allowance within planning law that permits a farmer or nurseryman to sell products that he or she produces on site to the public. Farm shops then usually supplement their sales by an agreed percentage of bought-in products.

Clearly most garden centres do not produce food on site. The only rationale from a planning point of view as to why they should be permitted to sell food is if there is a shortage in the area of fresh food outlets relating to local farm producers. This is one of the rare occasions when the requirements to meet planningcoincide with sound commercial reasons.  In my view, a farm shop or food outlet at a garden centre which does not differentiate itself clearly from offerings made by a local supermarket will not succeed. There has to be a compelling reason why a consumer should shop for food at a garden centre, either because the food is uniquely different, is better in quality, or is produced locally and the public value this quality. 

UK food supermarkets are among the best in the world.  They are very professional in their supply line management, which enables them to sell fresh food and packaged meals in an attractive and competitively priced way to the hard-pressed shopper. Morrisons in particular have developed a clear difference between themselves and other supermarkets with their emphasis on local produce in season which is then offered in a “market street”.

All the big supermarkets have also been very adept at responding to new demands or gaps in the market for healthy food, delicatessens and, recently, economy lines to cope with the financial pressure on household spending.

All this is something of a cautionary tale to indicate that before a garden centre jumps into food retailing, it should understand the offers existing in its locality from supermarkets and be clear as to the competitive advantage which it can bring to its food retail offer. If this unique difference is related to local provenance and the lack of suitable alternative outlets, this may well prove at least the business reason why planning approval should be given for the development. The other planning considerations will be the size of the offer in terms of its impact on the high street (which planning policy is oriented to protect) and whether the development requires new buildings, which may prove contentious, particularly in a Green Belt or open countryside location. 

It’s all getting personal in the GTN Bestsellers Christmas chart. This week ten of the Top 50 Bestselling Christmas products are peronallised ones, including all of the top three.

Top of the tree are the new Money Box tree decorations from History and Heraldry (pictured below). More of these were sold than of the Snow Globe decorations that were No 1 last year so it seems H&H are onto another hit.


New entries in the personalised Christmas product stakes are decorated and named tealight holders from Casa Grande (used to be known as Blue Chip) and the named Christmas Baubles with Jelly Beans from Abracardabra also come back into the Top 50 this week.


Whilst the logistics of supply, top-up, production and stock levels are obviously a problem with personalising products it would appear that when it comes to Christmas if you can put a current name on it then garden centres can sell it.

We saw personalised dinner place mats from Abracardabra this week while out and about visiting centres. It got us thinking what other products could be sold in high volume with personalisation? Orchid pots? Small garden tools? Gloves?

The other feature of the chart this week is the number of battery-operated
Christmas lines that are bestsellers. Battery-operated lights and dancing Christmas trees have been in the chart for weeks but now they’ve been joined by battery-operated Cotton Snowmen and battery-operated animated Christmas Hats from Premier Decorations.

The GTN team can’t wait to see these – but in the meantime we hope you are all merchandising packs of AA batteries in your festives displays and at tills right through to Christmas Eve!

See the full GTN Christmas Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £120.00 per year click here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

Neil told GTN Xtra that the next step following the summit meeting of trade associations in London on the 9^th October will be announced shortly and this will be very much based on the feedback we get to this survey and the ones being complied by i2i, the organisers of Glee.

To take part in the survey use this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V86RZ3N

also see:
http://www.gima.org.uk/press_news_detail.asp?fldNewsID=228

This weekend’s cold snap could prove critical in the run up to the year end.  Will it enable you to make the most of winter gardening sales as the first frosts hit?  Will it stir more gardeners into buying and planting bulbs as their summer bedding finally dies off?  And will it kick start more people thinking about Christmas over half term?

 Half term at the end of October always provides a boost for garden centre sales, with families visiting and plenty of Halloween activities planned. 

As the GTN Bestsellers volume index shows, last week was once again up on last year but for the first time since mid September it was below our GTN Prediction. 

Let’s hope the weather and all the garden centre attractions planned gets us back above last year again for the next two weeks GTN Bestsellers volume sales reporting.

There’s an Orchid care revolution going on at the moment and it’s being led by Growth Technology.

Their products take up eight of the GTN Bestsellers Top 20 sales positions and have three of the Top 5 UK garden products bestsellers.

• Orchid Myst, 100ml is at No 3
• 15cm Clear Pots are at No 4
• 12cm Clear Pots move up to No 5.

In total Growth Technology have 11 orchid care lines across the GTN Bestsellers charts with two Orchid compost pack sizes in the Growing media Top 50.  Perhaps they should come up with a Christmas specific Orchid care product then they could make a clean sweep of all the GTN Bestsellers charts.

Tree stakes and Weedstop were other products to see big sales increases last week as autumn tree planting kicked into gear.  Gardman 1.8m round tree stakes re-enterd the chart at No 32 and packs of Woven weedstop in 1m x 2m pre-cut sizes came back in at No 24, rejoining the 10m rolls which moved up to No 17.

Autumn garden cleaning continues to fuel bestselling lines:

• Creative Products 2 in 1 paving brush moves up 4 places to No 23.
• Brintons Patio Magic, 2.5 litres, re-enters at No 36.
• Algon Organic Algae Remover Patio Cleaner is at No 29.

See the full GTN Garden Products Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £120.00 per year click here 

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

Garden centre and industry staff are being invited to sign up for a fundraising event being held at the Garden Centre Association’s annual conference in January 2013.

The GCA Olympics will take place on Sunday, January 27 at the Crowne Plaza Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire to raise money for Greenfingers, which creates gardens at children’s hospices nationwide.

Peter Burks, Chairman of the GCA, explained: “It is tradition to have a fundraising event on the Sunday before the conference begins and we are particularly excited about this year’s event. We all embraced the Olympic spirit earlier this year and we hope that lots of people will keep that feeling going by signing up to take part in our very own version of the event.

“To give it a horticultural feel we have planned some themed events already that will feature, but we are looking for more companies to sponsor the GCA Olympics and put forward their own ideas for a game that links with their products.

“For example, Taylors Bulbs is sponsoring the bulb shot put, Briers is sponsoring the welly throwing and M&M Timber is sponsoring the fencepost tossing.”

Quinton Edwards is sponsoring the archery and William Sinclair and Deadfast the relay race.

There will be 12 events during the day, starting at 2.30pm. There will be a formal medal ceremony, athletes parade and a closing ceremony, which will take place after dinner.

Peter continued: “You don’t need to sponsor an event to take part, we’re just looking for as many people as possible to sign up and participate.

“Guy Topping, Managing Director of Barton Grange Garden Centre will be leading the athletes from the garden centres’ team and Adam Taylor, Director of Taylors Bulbs will be leading the suppliers or associates team. The team that gets the most points overall will win the Greenfingers Challenge Cup.

“To register your interest either for taking part in the GCA Olympics or to enquire about sponsoring an event, please email Pat Adams, GCA Administrator, via pat@gca.org.uk.”

Following the event there will be a supper, which is open to all delegates attending the conference, and people will have the opportunity to raise further funds for Greenfingers through an auction.

Greenfingers was launched in November 1998 by a group of volunteers drawn from all sectors of the gardening industry.  Growers, plant breeders, retailers, manufacturers and a host of gardening journalists and celebrities have willingly contributed materials, time and expertise to create gardens at children’s hospices around the UK. To date, Greenfingers has created 39 gardens.

Deborah Skillicorn, Director of Marketing and Fundraising at Greenfingers, said: “We are delighted that the GCA will be hosting another fundraising spectacular for us in 2013. The GCA and its members’ support is greatly appreciated and we love the creativity of its events.”

The GCA Olympics will take place on Sunday, January 27 at the Crowne Plaza Heythrop Park near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

The 2013 GCA conference will provide delegates with pertinent information on key aspects of the garden centre industry to assist members in achieving their business goals.

The information shared will focus on a wide range of topics, including merchandising, marketing and management.

For further details about the GCA, please call 01993 871456, visit www.gca.org.uk, log on to www.facebook.com/pages/Garden-Centre-Association or follow the organisation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GC_Association.

Every week GTN receives and analyses epos data from a number of UK garden centres to produce the GTN Bestsellers charts and weekly bestsellers sales tips.

The full charts which provide useful insight into product sales peaks, new trends and new link sales opportunities are published in the weekly GTN Xtra printed newsletter and on the GTN website www.gardentradenews.co.uk.

Access is by subscription only.  For £120.00 per year you and your team can have access to the most upto date gardening sales analysis that has already helped many UK garden centres increase their sales.  To subscribe call 01733 775700, or subscribe on-line here

 

or e-mail karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

Highlights of the GTN Garden Products Bestsellers chart for this week are here

Highlights of the GTN Growing Media Bestsellers chart for this week are here

Highlights of the GTN Christmas Bestsellers chart for this week are here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

The Garden Centre Association has announced the regional winners of its Ruxley Rose competition.

Eleven garden centres were named as winners in the competition, which recognises excellent quality and range of plants.

Peter Burks, Chairman of the GCA, said: “I’d like to congratulate all the regional winners in this year’s Ruxley Rose competition. They were as follows for the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) and Garden Centre (GC) categories: Barton Grange Garden Centre (DGC) in Preston and Lady Green Garden Centre (GC) in Liverpool in the North West.

“Cowell’s Garden Centre (GC) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the North East, Webbs of Wychbold (DGC) in Droitwich Spa and Fairways Garden Centre (GC) in Ashbourne in the Midlands. Trelawney at Wadebridge (DGC) and Bernaville Nurseries (GC) in Exeter were winners for Wales and the West.

“Van Hage Great Amwell (DGC) in Ware and Sunshine Garden Centre (GC) in London won in North Thames and Squires Garden Centre – Twickenham (DGC) and Squires Garden Centre – Hersham (GC) were crowned winners for South Thames.”

The Ruxley Rose is a GCA annual competition that focuses specifically on outdoor plant areas.

The judges of the Ruxley Rose competition looked at the quality, range and presentation of plants. They also considered the layout including overall impression, access and use of demonstration areas. Labelling, including directional signs and bed and plant labels were also taken into consideration.

Peter added: “Garden centres are judged on their staff’s knowledge and customer care, the promotions that they run and special features, such as new varieties. The judges were also looking for the wow factor.

“The regional winners will now go through to the national final, which will be judged by Kevin Waters, Co-Founder of The Garden Works. The overall winners for each category will be announced at our annual conference in January.”

Compared to the same week last year, growing media sales in the GTN Bestsellers chart are down by 25% and down by 21% on two years ago...  

Of the Top 10 Growing Media lines sold by centres providing data to GTN Bestsellers only 75 litre packs of Westland Multipurpose saw a sales increase.

Outside of the Top 10 the lines that also saw sales increases included:

• West + Rose, Tree and Shrub Compost, 60 litres moved up 26 places.
• Vital Earth Garden Soil, 25 litres, is a re-entry.
• Westland Bulb planting compost, 10 litres, is a re-entry just above.

If the cold weather prompts more bulb buying and planting and tree planting we can expect to see further increases of these lines next week.

Gardeners looking for traditional growing media are also driving sales up. Both Westland Jacks Magic and Multipurpose with John Innes saw big sales increases last week.  At this time of year peat free alternatives don’t seem to be as popular with gardeners.

See the full GTN Growing Media Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £120.00 per year click here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

Walter Harrison’s, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of wild bird foods and accessories, is helping Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust enthuse the next generation of naturalists following a donation of over £14,200.

Stuart Hendry of Walter Harrison’s presented a cheque to Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s newly appointed Vice President Mike Dilger at the charity’s AGM.

Mr Dilger, a wildlife expert on BBC1’s The One Show, has been appointed due to his strong affinity with the county and his commitment to promoting the work of the charity.

The donation results from sales of Walter Harrison’s range of wild bird care products across the UK. Every purchase made of Walter Harrison’s goes to helping support the crucial work of the Wildlife Trust.

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust Chief Executive John Everitt said: “Every purchase of Walter Harrison’s bird foods and accessories, whether from our own Attenborough Nature Centre or outlets across the UK, helps support our wildlife conservation and education work throughout the year.

"The level of support provided by Walter Harrison’s is tremendous and helps us plan for the future of our vital work.”

Speaking on behalf of Walter Harrison’s, Sales Director Stuart Hendry, said: “We have been supporting the work of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Attenborough Nature Centre for a number of years.

"Providing food for birds has real benefits for birds and homeowners alike. During the colder winter months the provision of food can be a lifesaver, combined with the loss of habitats due to modern farming practices gardens are now an important habitat for wild birds"

Fore more information about Walter Harrison’s wild bird care products call 0115 982 3900 or email info@petproducts.co.uk

HTA supports ban on ash imports but calls for compensation for losses and for licence regime to enable free movement of clean UK stock

The HTA has submitted its formal response to the consultation on the risk assessment for Chalara fraxinea and on the future management of the disease. The response makes five main points;

• The HTA fully agrees that Chalara fraxinea poses a severe threat to the UK wider environment and supports an import ban to minimise the potential of further introduction of the disease. 

• The HTA encourages a thorough and prompt scientific survey to establish the true extent of the outbreak in the UK.  There are already reports of findings in the natural environment in East Anglia.  The plant health authorities need to establish Pest Free Area(s) as soon as they can, and strictly control the movement of ash into those areas.

• Whilst maintaining the UK's biosecurity is of paramount importance, the current uncertainty is causing significant commercial ramifications.  To help mitigate the economic damage, the HTA has proposed an interim licencing regime to enable controlled movement of uninfected UK stock until the PFAs have been established, or not.

• Given that the sporelation period is now over, no further destruction notices should be served until the full extent of the outbreak has been determined.   Containment orders should be issued instead.  This will avoid unnecessary expenditure in the event that the survey finds that the disease is widespread.

• And finally, the industry will be seeking compensation from government for any financial losses it incurs.  The HTA first expressed its concerns about this disease in 2009 when the plant health authorities responded that the disease was already established in the UK and no quarantine measures were appropriate.    

Tim Briercliffe, HTA Director of Business Development, said:  “It is hugely disappointing that Defra have not acted more quickly on this issue as we first raised it with them in 2009 following a Tree and Hedging Group tour to Denmark where the disease was seen first hand. Our advice was to ban imports then. We are looking for Defra to provide compensation for growers that have suffered as a result of this.”

Floral designs on fine china mugs are becoming more popular in garden centres, and Lesser & Pavey are providing retailers with a chance to capitalise with an affordable range in special gift boxes.

The company believes that traditional and feminine lines are the way forward. 

For more information visit www.leonardo.co.uk or call 01322 279225.

Family-run Shannon's Garden Centre in Forest Hill has scooped a Lewisham Business Award for excellent customer care.

The centre, who received the award from the Mayor of Lewisham Sir Steve Bullock, has cultivated strong ties with the community with projects including planting at Forest Hill Station and teaching schoolchildren the value of growing plants.

Part-owner Linda Shannon said: "Receiving this award is great for us. We understand that good customer service is about bringing customers back. 

"To do this we try to send all our customers away happy enough to pass on positive feedback about our business to others who will try our services and products for themselves.

"When customers are happy they usually come back and we’re now at a point where most of our customers know our name and we know theirs."

Sir Steve Bullock added: "Shannon’s Garden Centre has been established in the borough for over 20 years and its loyal customer base speaks volumes about the quality service this family business provides.

"It has become recognised as part of the community and I’m proud to acknowledge its exemplary service with a Mayor of Lewisham Business Awards."

September saw a second month’s rise in garden centre and nursery sales providing a welcome lift after the industry’s most difficult spring in many years.

Figures reported through the HTA’s Garden Retail Monitor show sales 3% higher for September 2012 compared with the previous year and follow a similar increase in August. The September results bring the year to date figure to 8% behind the first nine months of last year, an improvement on the 10% deficit reported last month.

“It is very encouraging to see two successive months of growth being reported by members”, comments HTA Director of Marketing & Communications Andrew Maxted.

“While it remains early days, there are increasing signs that the squeeze on consumer spending may be beginning to ease and this, coupled with a rediscovery of the benefits of autumn gardening, are reflected in members’ sales.

"Reports of members giving a renewed emphasis to bulbs, shrubs, lawn and other garden care products, many making great use of the HTA’s Plan it, Plant it this Autumn campaign materials and in a number of cases choosing to delay bringing in Christmas displays, appear to have caught the consumer mood this autumn. Clearly UK consumers have not lost the gardening habit and this augurs well for the industry for next year.”

The HTA Garden Retail Monitor reports actual sales data supplied by HTA member garden centres and retail nurseries and provides contributors with a valuable benchmark to compare their sales performance with other members both regionally and nationally. Retail members wishing to contribute to the monitor should contact their