Only the directors will ever be able to shed full light on why one of the garden industry’s pivotal and most-admired businesses – which only two years ago was voted the GCA’s supplier of the year in the GIMA Awards (see picture) – should have today found itself in administration.

For now, all we have to go on is an assurance (less than 24 hours after the news broke) from the commercial director that the stakeholders are still supportive while the administrators continue their bid to sell the company as a going concern. As is his prerogative, chief executive Mark Pearson, appointed after the departure of MD Nick Davies (who had worked for Solus for 29 years) has remained silent, except to tell us that they would be investigating a complaint received from one garden centre that their regular delivery had not turned up.

So the events leading up to this week’s dramatic development remain the subject of conjecture. But when the post-mortem begins, these will surely be among the issues on the agenda.

1.The balance sheet… Why did a business with turnover in the range of £84m to £96m in the years 2010 to 2012 (the latest published accounts) take such a turnover hit in 2013/14. Turnover for the six months to March 2014 had slumped to £29.3m (according to PwC, the administrators), which some believe is around £20 million adrift from where you might expect it to be. That would be a big hit. The Garden Centre Group’s decision to set up its own distribution centre may well have contributed to the pain. Ironically, good weather has produced one of the best trading springs for years…

2. The sales force… Solus began shedding experienced sales staff at this time last year and by the year end had parted company with Davies, who announced he was setting up a new joint venture, backed by Westland. We can only assume that Solus had identified a need for big change. But will it have turned out to be too much, too soon…? The loss of so many experienced, senior staff in such a short space of may well have upset the balance of the business, to the detriment of its sales performance.

3. Re-inventing the wheel… If Solus saw the need to ‘modernise’ to meet the needs of younger consumers now widely courted by the retailers, were they aiming at the right target? The garden retail market is still largely driven by the ‘grey pound’ and will probably continue to be so. Its needs are pretty basic. “Let the retailers do the polishing,” some might argue. “Just deliver in the products.”

4. The Scotts saga… Retailers and suppliers alike agreed that Scotts and Solus would have made a strong partnership, giving Solus the extra investment it needed. After the prospect of a deal had been made public, Solus withdrew. If the directors were waiting for a better deal around the corner, this may turn out to be the biggest regret of all.