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It’s a sell out!
As news filters through about plant centres getting back to year on year sales and some centres that changed hands last year actually being up year to date now, GTN Xtra has been hearing from garden centres that they are selling out of some lines, especially BBQ’s Charcoal and Gas as lockdown relaxations add fuel to spending at garden centres...
“We’ve sold out of BBQ’s, we’ve run out of charcoal today (Monday) and we can’t get any more gas for 2 weeks."
"Last week we were asked not to sell any new gas bottle contracts. You can imagine how that went down when trying to sell gas BBQs! Are other brands as bad?”
“Turf has been selling especially well despite the dry weather."
“Due to amazing amount of hardwork from the teams across the business we have had a very encouraging month. Sales have certainly been in excess of anything we hoped for."
Read comments from Altons, Hillmount, Coolings, Bosworths, Haskins, Planters & British Garden Centres
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Record sales on top of record sales in Scotland
Garden Centres in Scotland opened last Friday and they have experienced similar re-opening experiences as centres in England and Wales...
"We are seeing the same pattern as experienced by garden centres throughout the rest of the UK: Record sales on top of record sales."
"Probably the hardest 10 weeks in my over 40 years of working but so glad to be doing it where so many businesses cannot.”
“We ran out of bedding on Saturday and had two days without any. I think we would have been 100% up if we'd had that."
Read comments from Caulders, Torwood and Glendoick Garden Centres
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It’s like Christmas, only bigger!
The number of new lines selling through and being recorded in the GTN Bestsellers Epos database was on a par with the start of Christmas. Gardeners are buying EVERYTHING they can to be enjoying their garden this summer...
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Fire at Millbrook Gravesend destroys compost and furniture
"Luckily everyone was safe and the fire brigade put it out before it spread too far. We lost compost and garden furniture as well as the contents of our Christmas grotto..."
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The biggest week for Growing Media sales, ever!
Sales of Growing Media during the second week after re-opening soared to the highest levels ever recorded by GTN Bestsellers and not by a small margin...
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Thank you for bringing a little floral cheer on #FloralFriday!
Speaking on behalf of the charity, Trustee Boyd Douglas-Davies said: “We all know it’s a really challenging time for our industry so thank you so much for getting right behind this campaign. As well as keeping the charity and industry very much in the hearts and minds of garden lovers, thanks to your support #FloralFriday has so far raised a phenomenal £1,000 for Greenfingers. So, let’s keep it going - it’s only together that we can continue to make a difference to those very many children and families who sadly need to use hospices across the UK”...
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Dobbies sign up on new site that will be the biggest Dobbies in the South West
Dobbies Garden Centres have signed an agreement to lease with Cheltenham-based developer Robert Hitchins Ltd to open a 75,000 sq ft flagship garden centre.
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Bents dedicates more resource to popular Food Box service
With the re-opening of the main Centre, Bents Garden & Home has been able to welcome colleagues back to work and with this increased capacity it has also been able to dedicate more resource to its Food Boxes, helping to meet continuing demand for this popular service...
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Jump starting the gardening industry
The Millbrook Garden Company has published a blog on their website giving customers a clear picture as to why certain plants and products may be out of stock when they come to the garden centre, we thought it worth sharing with GTN Xtra readers...
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Festives' trade ordering website sees significant growth in orders
Festive have been operating their trade ordering website for a number of years and are seeing a significant increase in the volume of orders received through their site each year due to the ease and convenience of being able to check stocks and add to orders 24 hours a day...
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2020 RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year Announced
Vegebag announced as RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year
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Working together to meet the uk’s unprecedented demand for Growing Media
Mark Portman, Managing Director of UK & Ireland at Evergreen Garden Care, told GTN Xtra: "The demand for growing media is huge, it's astronomical, and we're doing everything we can. We are producing seven days a week. We're running our shifts on maximum capacity...
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Innovative ideas for making outdoor dining safe
Elite Greenhouses with toughened safety glass makes them an ideal option for outdoor dining in the UK whatever the weather...
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spoga+gafa 2020: Trends and new products for the outdoor season
The garden as a sustainable retreat is the focus of the coming spoga+gafa. From 6 to 8 September 2020, the world’s largest garden trade fair will again showcase current trends and themed areas in the gardens sector. International exhibitors will present pioneering solutions from the world of the garden and offer a comprehensive overview of the new products...
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Catering Design Group's ten top tips for reopening your catering facilities safely
- Review restaurant layout and flows to promote social distancing
- Think about zoning and reorientation of areas – use screens for divisions and segregation in high risk areas
- Introduce protective screens around counters and till stations
- Minimise ‘touch points’ within high risk areas – introduce ‘hands-free’ operation wherever possible
- Increase Hygiene/sanitisation points – consider additional technology...
Read more
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All seasons, all reasons with new Multi-Tool Attachments
EGO adds three brand new attachments to its multi-tool...
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New record set for Garden Product sales
Garden Product sales zoomed to a recorded weekly sales high in the second week after re-opening. The GTN Bestsellers Garden Products Top 50 volume was up 65% on the first week and 17% higher than the previous record set during the early May Bank Holiday week of 2016...
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Trevor Wellington 29/4/47 – 14/5/20
The widely known and well-liked grower and nursery manager, Trevor Wellington, has sadly died aged 73...
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Baker & Taylor ready to support your needs at short notice
Baker & Taylor, the wholesaler of book ranges for garden centres, hopes the staff and their families of all their customers have remained safe in the midst of this crisis...
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Plants up by 35%
Epos data of barcoded plant sales were up by 35% week on week but down 3% on last year. If that’s a surprise to you it’s because there are still a lot of plant sales going through tills on dump codes...
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Four Oaks Trade Show 2020 Cancelled
Last week it was announced that the Four Oaks Trade Show for 2020, the 50th anniversary event, has been postponed due to the Coronavirus crisis...
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Record Veg sales beat pre-lockdown peak
Deliveries of young veg plants got back into gear last week and the plants sold through in huge volumes. It was a record week for Veg 2 Gro sales...
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Smiemans to build huge leisure centre for Plantorama
While Smiemans Projecten is building the largest garden centre in Denmark, they once again received the order from Plantorama to build a second garden centre, this time in Hørsholm. This means that Denmark's largest chain grows to 13 branches in a short time...
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HTA Launches New App
The HTA has launched a new mobile App, to give horticulture businesses access to up-to-date industry information, resources, and training opportunities...
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The best of last week's
If you missed last week's GTN Xtra, below are the most-read stories...
Garden Centre sales reach record levels 2 weeks after re-opening
The second week of trading after the re-opening of garden centres has seen the GTN Bestsellers All Products index soar by 44% on the first week and reach an all time high for week 21...
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"Open For Business: Lessons Learned from Lockdown and The First Week of Trading". Watch the webinar replay now
Last week we joined Boyd Douglas-Davies, Mike Burks, Adam Wigglesworth and Will Blake for the "Open For Business: Lessons Learned from Lockdown and The First Week of Trading" webinar. Watch the complete hour long webinar now and hear how Adam is now a web trading convert, how Will's team at St Peters greatly enjoyed being able to re-open, how Mike believes some of his operational changes will have long term benefits and Boyd thanks suppliers for their great efforts and says as an industry we should not be looking for discounts from growers...
Watch the webinar replay here
Covid-19 Safe - Barton Grange Style
While some garden centres are managing their customer numbers by controlling the number of trolleys in at any one time Barton Grange are only allowing 100 cars at a time to park up, with other cars waiting in a queing system on the remainder of the sites car parking space. GTN's North West corespondent Steve Myatt took the short trip up the M6 to bring you this GTN Xtra photo tour...
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Post-Lockdown trading re-starts at 48% down year to date
GTN Bestsellers Analysis
The first set of Epos data for GTN Bestsellers after 7 weeks of lockdown showed total volume sales of barcoded products only 17% down on the same week last year despite two less days of trading and many less customers as a result of Social Distancing restrictions...
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GrowNation stores take 40% of sales outside business hours. Online garden sales booming.
GTN Xtra promotion
As the rush to online continues in the garden retail sector, GrowNation (grownation.co.uk) reports that almost half of sales are made whilst garden centres are closed for the day...
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Garden Centre Photo Tours
If you've missed one of our popular photo tours of garden centres then click on the links below:
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Haskins Garden Centre in Snowhill, Crawley, has opened its doors to customers following a 12-month refurbishment costing £15m...
Read more and see GTN Xtras photo tour of the new centre
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