GCA garden centre inspector Roger Crookes visited the Harrogate Christmas & Gift Fair to discover some new gems for GTN Xtra. Here he shares his 5 top tips from the show.

Think 'The Frozen Planet' - interest and sales of the acrylic lit polar bears and penguins still seem to be gaining momentum ... can anyone arrange for the BBC to repeat 'The Frozen Planet' this November?  [Eds note: Stunning use of acrylic lit Reindeer wins special Greatest Christmas Award for Garden Pride, customers walked through the legs of the reindeer to enter the centre.]

Think Blossom Trees - most centres had a great time with LED blossom trees last year, and there is an ever increasing range available.  [Eds note: How about using lit blossom trees and branches in spring and summer displays too?]

Think Big - large display Blossom Trees are coming down in price but going up in range - this could be the year we see garden centre car parks all over the country sparkling in giant LED tress - what an advert that would be!

Think British - the interest and pride in things British is growing after 2012 - Festives British made tinsel was attracting lots of interest - with a tinsel machine working at the show.  [Eds note: The Garden Centre Group led the way for British designers of Christmas products with Best of British displays as at Heighley Gate who won Gold for Greatest Display Team of a centre that's part of a group.]

Think Tapestries - one of last year's bestsellers. If you missed them in 2012 there are lots of new styles available for 2013, what will be the record number sold from one centre?

Look out for more great Christmas retailing ideas from The Greatest Awards over the coming weeks issues of GTN Xtra.

It's cheers all round for Bents, Scotsdales and Ruxley Manor.  All winners at The Greatest Christmas Awards party.  Did the cameras catch you on the dancefloor?

• Westland Fish Blood Bone 1.5kg + 50% Extra Free at No 33.

• Westland Fish Gromore 1.5kg + 50% Extra Free at No 37.

• Growing Success Winter Tree Wash at No. 49.

A new trade show for the casual dining sector was announced this week – at a time when quality catering is becoming increasingly central to garden centre businesses.

Diversified Business Communications UK, organisers of the award-winning lunch! exhibition, said the new show, Casual Dining, will take place at the Business Design Centre in London on the 26-27 February 2014.

The launch, following extensive consultation, fills a perceived gap for a dedicated trade show aimed at the highly successful casual dining market, in which the UK is rapidly becoming a world leader. It has long been felt that garden centres who take catering seriously are poised to take a significant market share.

The UK’s high streets are dominated by casual dining brands like Carluccio’s, PizzaExpress, wagamama, Strada, Nando’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Cotê, whilst many traditional pubs now have a quality food offering. UK garden centre operators have invested millions in new or upgraded coffee shops and restaurants in recent years, contributing to a sector conservatively estimated to be worth at least £5 billion.

The concept has received universal support from leading industry operators, including the Gondola Group, whose brands include Ask, PizzaExpress and Zizzi. Glendola Leisure Group’s buyer Mark Bridge said a dedicated trade show that brings together, and offers inspiration and solutions for the sector was “well overdue.”

With the tag line ‘Inspiring Innovation’, the event will feature a seminar and keynote programme alongside an exhibition of around 150 hand-picked suppliers of of innovative products for casual dining businesses, including food and drink, equipment, interior design, furniture, technology and table top.

Chris Brazier, event manager of Casual Dining, says the launch is a direct response to feedback from visitors and exhibitors at the lunch! show, which was attended by a number of garden centres last year

Diversified Business Communications have a growing portfolio of successful events in the food sector (lunch! and The Natural Food Show in the UK, European Seafood in Brussels, Fine Food in Australia and India, and Restaurant & Bar in Hong Kong).  lunch! won the Association of Exhibition Organisers’ Best UK Trade Show Exhibition (under 2,000sq.m.) Award in 2010 and 2011, and Best Marketing Campaign 2012.

The Casual Dining website was launched yesterday.

www.CasualDiningShow.co.uk.

Thanks to new innovative nano-bubble technology from Pure Rain, gardeners can experience the benefits of natural rainwater on demand.

Pure Rain products add millions of microscopic nano-bubbles to ordinary tap water, re-oxygenating it to recreate the natural composition of rainwater.

The extra oxygen delivered by the nano-bubbles helps plants absorb nutrients quickly, making them healthier, stronger and more disease resistant.

The technology is proven to make leafy plants grow up to 30 per cent larger than conventional watering systems and the range has a whole host of other benefits, including:

• Chemical free and eco-friendly, meaning less need for fertilisers and pesticides
• Produces larger, more robust plants with stronger roots
• 5-year warranty

The Pure Rain range comprises handheld guns, a watering wand and a water station. For more information visit www.PureRain.co.uk

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.

New for this year, every week we'll give sales volume comparisons with 2011 as well as 2012 to allow your teams to see variations over a three year period.

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 Veg-2-Gro Bestsellers chart for this week are here

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

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts seriously improve the business of our subscribers.  Invest 15 minutes each week in improving your sales using the GTN Bestsellers charts and your turnover and customer satisfaction will improve too.

Craig Keyworth, Regional Sales Manager from Scotts Miracle-Gro, will face the challenge of a lifetime when he runs the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 21st April.

Craig is raising money for Anthony Nolan, the pioneering charity that helps cure blood cancer by matching patients with bone marrow donors.

Craig, 40, is running for Anthony Nolan because his mother recently received the fantastic news of being given the all-clear after suffering from cancer.

He says, “When my mother was diagnosed with cancer it really hit the family hard as we had not had any illness like this in the family before and this gave me the impetus to raise money for a cancer charity. I looked at all the options and having done some other charity events for Anthony Nolan it was the right charity to choose.”

Commenting on the challenge ahead, Craig adds, “I am well in the middle of my training programme at the moment running four nights a week covering around 30 miles and trying to ensure I am eating the right foods. Being out on the road each day it’s such a temptation to grab a snack but I have to be disciplined!”

Rebecca Highfield, Events Co-ordinator at Anthony Nolan, said, “It’s incredible that Craig is running the Virgin London Marathon for Anthony Nolan; fundraising is essential for the work that we do.

"It costs £100 to recruit each person on to the bone marrow register. The more money Craig raises, the more people we can add to the register, and the more lives we can save.”

If you would like to support Craig, please visit www.justgiving.com/craigkeyworth

A business alliance between European specimen stock specialists Classiflora and Italian grower Zelari has been formalised, with Zelari taking an active shareholding in the Essex-based company. The deal, which was completed earlier this month, is seen both as an endorsement of Classiflora’s business model and a sign of Zelari’s confidence in the long-term prospects for the UK market.

Classiflora has been bucking recent economic trends by producing steady year-on-year growth. Managing director Riccardo Castiglioni puts the success of this family business down to its ability to respond to the demand to supply larger projects – including the Olympic Park and Westfield Shopping Centre – while continuing to provide a competitive and reliable service for the retail sector, landscapers and garden designers.

Zelari’s commitment will allow Classiflora to enhance customer services from its seven-acre site (near the M25), where there is ample space to expand the offering of specimen plants, hardy outdoor shrubs, trees and ornamental plants. Zelari’s European supply chain enables Classiflora to offer competitive and flexible deals on mixed shelves and trolleys and provide a varied and reliable offering for cash and carry customers.

Riccardo Castiglioni said: “Classiflora has been Zelari’s sole UK agent for some 27 years and their support over that time has helped build Classiflora’s reputation for sourcing quality stock 12 months of the year. We are naturally delighted to be moving our association onto this more permanent footing by welcoming Andrea and Stefano Zelari to our board. It’s great news for the company, our staff and customers; already the investment has enabled us to strengthen our nursery and logistics teams and improve our IT systems, with a specially developed application designed to streamline the order process. Customers – old and new – will enjoy our usual friendly and efficient service, speedier delivery and an improved level of quality and choice.”

The company is forecasting an annual turnover of more than a third of a million plants – two 40ft articulated trucks delivering stock to the Waltham Abbey site every day during the high season. They say visiting landscapers and garden designers will be assured of ready availability when ordering in quantity. Retail customers will benefit from new ‘pick and mix’ shelf and trolley deals that will allow them to build their own bespoke selections from a greater variety of lines to suit their particular customer requirements, reducing the risk of unsold stock.

Classiflora will be launching the new bespoke shelf deals at their annual open days on Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7March, when visitors can view more than 1700 lines and take advantage of extra discounts on any orders placed over those two days. 

Monty Don of BBC Gardener’s World will attend on Wednesday 6 March, when he will present a seminar and Q & A session. For further details and to book tickets for either day, visit www.classiflora.com/

An employee at one of the UK’s largest horticultural design and print companies, is celebrating this month after clocking up 25 years of dedicated service to the business.

Sylvia Cooper, Office and Operations Manager at Floramedia, is the longest-serving team member at the Colchester-based company.

Nick Mathias, Managing Director of Floramedia, said: “We are extremely grateful for the dedication shown by Sylvia during the past 25 years.

“We would like to thank her for the years of service she has given to the Floramedia team and we look forward to many more years ahead. Sylvia is wonderful and is an integral part of our company.”

She is responsible for the operational side of Floramedia, in particular the Projects and Customer Service Teams, which look after all the customer orders. Sylvia is also a member of the Management Team where she leads a particular focus on customer service and communications.

Sylvia, who lives in Brightlingsea, started working at Floramedia, then known as Mercurius, in January 1988 when she was aged 25.

Sylvia said: “I can’t believe I have been with the company for 25 years. I get such satisfaction in seeing a project evolve from an initial idea to a printed product and knowing I have been instrumental in its execution.

“I love a challenge and delivering on a promise, customer satisfaction is key and if I can achieve that then I’m happy.

“The future at Floramedia is very exciting, especially with regards to our mobile and web-based side of the business for horticultural retail and this is something I really look forward to seeing evolve during the next couple of years.”

An HTA white paper, ‘How to profit from a connected  world’, launched this week at Contact 2013 in Bromsgrove, highlights the importance of embracing technology in the garden industry.

Caroline Owen, HTA President and chair of the HTA Marketing Committee, said the paper outlined some of the technologies driving change. “Based on research among  consumers and across different industries, this paper explores how these technologies may change the shape of gardening and garden retailing in the coming decade. We want it to provoke ideas and debate about what potential technology holds for invigorating  the nation’s favourite pastime,” she added.

It explores how both consumers and staff of garden centres will benefit from websites, QR codes and apps available to them in seconds through the use of a smart phone or tablet. QR codes can be printed on plant related material to provide the consumer with more information and assurance about what they’re considering purchasing. In addition, applications for smart phones are using consumer information  to provide tailored tips and reminders for their particular garden.

HTA market information manager, David Denny said Smart phone and tablet ownership was increasing rapidly. “More use is being made of the potential to help inspire and inform customers  about plants through smart technology. Consumers want access to information on the go.”

According to Future Foundation consumer surveys, more than half of our highest garden spending age group (British 45-64 year olds) will own a smart phone by 2014. A 2012  report published by the Sponge Group1 said 42% of smart phone owners in June 2012 claimed to have used their device to compare prices or look up information on a product in store. Technology intervention is likely to be well received by the garden retail staff, who advise more than three million people a year on gardening matters.

‘How to profit from a connected world’ suggests a starting point for garden businesses to review how technology can really increase the value our customers get from plants, their gardens,  and service. Garden businesses can then begin to prioritise and apply the technologies effectively as they move into the mobile information and communication age.

The former Director of Brand, Marketing & Culture for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) will be speaking at the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) conference later this month...

Greg Nugent, who was responsible for all aspects of imagery, branding, marketing, public interaction and creative input of the Games, will share his experiences with delegates on January 29.

Peter Burks, Chairman of the GCA, said: “Greg had a truly fascinating and varied job in the run up to and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. He was responsible for the ways in which the public, both those attending or watching at home, interacted, perceived and felt a part of the Olympics and Paralympics.

“He was involved in the design of the ‘spectator experience’, which is something no other Olympic Games had considered, as well as the look and feel of the event.

“From his experience with this once in a lifetime event, Greg has drawn lessons that can apply to any brand or business of any size and type and we are privileged that he will be sharing this invaluable knowledge with us.”

In Greg’s role as Director of Brand, Marketing & Culture for LOCOG he was involved in the design of the Olympic venues, public opinion and the opening ceremony. He worked extensively with those responsible for delivering and operating the Games. He also developed the concept of Games Makers.

Greg is now Deputy Chair of the Join in Trust, an organisation that has evolved the idea of localism and volunteers based on the Games Makers.

Peter added: “As anyone who visited the Olympics and Paralympics will know, the training and organisation of the volunteers was amazing.”

More than 300 delegates from the nation’s leading garden centres, including independents and chains, are expected to attend the annual GCA Conference.

Houghton Hall Garden Centre in Cumbria was evacuated when a fire broke out on Friday morning.

The incident happened at the Carlisle garden centre just after 11.30am.The fire was on part of the building’s exterior.

Firefighter Mike Clusker said that, despite its small size, it was a difficult fire to put out. It was in a corrugated part of the outside wall, which is foam filled. However, crews managed to extinguish it.

Two firefighters were sent into the building to remove parts of the ceiling to check for further signs of the blaze. Crews then used a fan to clear smoke from the interior.

The centre was open when the fire started but smoke alarms alerted staff to the blaze and the building was evacuated.