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GCA Christmas competition winners announced
Barton Grange Garden Centre (above) and Whitehall Garden Centre – Whitchurch have been announced as the national winners of the 2019 Garden Centre Association’s annual Christmas competition. The garden centres were judged to have the best festive displays in the country by the organisation and will receive their awards at its annual conference in January, 2020.
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Primeur’s ECO Garden display stands set to revitalise sales of garden borders and stepping stones in 2020
GTN Xtra Promotion
In a year that has seen Primeur’s penetration of UK garden centres increase exponentially, the company has been busy working behind the scenes to develop its instore merchandising displays for the award-winning Eco Garden range...
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The stock market is the “natural place” for Dobbies and it will look to float
Andrew Bracey, the chairman of Dobbies, said in The Times on Saturday: the stock market is the “natural place” for the business and it will look to float “in a year or so”. Graeme Jenkins explains the plan...
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Dobbies announce 12% sales growth to February 2019
Dobbies Garden Centre Group Limited yesterday (30th November 2019) filed the Annual Report and Financial Statements for The Group and its subsidiaries for the 12 months to 24 February 2019. These show sales increased 12% on prior year to £166m and are now at £300m following the purchase of a further 31 centres during the rest of 2019...
Read more and see GTN Xtras photo tour of Dobbies Edinburgh
‘A strong and vibrant ornamental horticulture sector’
HTA’s general election 2019 manifesto
Ahead of the 12 December general election, the HTA has set out a manifesto outlining the key policy themes and ‘asks’ that are fundamental to developing a strong and vibrant horticulture sector...
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New Strikes Garden Centre, Stokesley Opens
After the devasting fire at our garden centre back in April 2018, Klondyke Strikes have announced that their brand new Strikes Garden Centre and Restaurant at Stokesley is now open...
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RHS Garden Wisley bucks the trend against High Street sales
Opening of new Welcome building in June leads to significant increase
RHS Garden Wisley is celebrating significant rises in retail sales since the opening of its new Welcome building in June this year, with total sales up 24%. This is significantly higher than the rest of the gardening retail industry, which is down 1.7% on comparable categories for the same period, and also bucks the trend against the high street generally, where in-store sales from June to October are 0.64% less than last year.
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Customers voting for Christmas at garden centres
GTN Bestsellers Analysis
Customers are voting for Christmas at garden centres across the country as volume sales continue to rise above all previous years...
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Christmas success for Brimsmore...even with no glitter
The Castle Gardens group, famous for its award-winning Christmas displays, has earned another gong – with Yeovil-based Brimsmore Gardens placed third in this year’s GCA national Christmas awards (sponsored by Gisela Graham)…even though it has removed the glitter…
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Administrators sell off National Polytunnels business assets
Administrators appointed 10 days ago at National Polytunnels, one of the best-known suppliers to garden centres in its category, were marketing the company’s business assets for sale through agent Simon Creber of GTC last week...
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Wish you were here! SOLEX winner enjoys prize in Barbados
Phil Stevenson of Wantage-based family-run Charlton Park Garden Centre enjoyed a free holiday in Barbados…courtesy of his garden furniture supplier...
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Hillier announces environmental audit to cut carbon footprint
Hillier is working on an environmental impact audit to evaluate how it can reduce the business’s carbon footprint, director Chris Francis announced at the annual Hillier Garden Centre Awards...
Left: Hillier's Employee of the Year, Joshna Desai, receives her award from TV gardener Joe Swift.
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Brother and sister give up day jobs to run Kent centre
Brother and sister Tom and Jenny Ripley are to take over Greenways garden centre in Bethersden, Kent, in January - the first time the centre has changed hands in almost 20 years...
Above: Bradley, Tom and Andrew Ripley in The Garden Restaurant at what will become Ripleys Garden Centre in January.
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All the latest news from the world of garden centre catering
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Drinks suppliers flock to show their wares at Casual Dining
Four months ahead of from Casual Dining 2020 (25-26 March, London ExCeL) two of the show's popular drinks pavilions are already sold out. Boasting a dozen exhibitors each, the Artisan Spirits Lounge and The Taphouse will sample innovations from a mix of independent breweries and distilleries...
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Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
with all the news direct to your e-mail inbox...
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Westland Group Announces Key Appointments to Leadership Teams
Simon McArdle moves to Gardman Crest as Marketing and Category Director and Mark Sage joins as Head of Commercial Horticulture for Westland Group from Wyevale Garden Centres...
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At 76, is this Santa's most senior Elf?
Santa will be approaching the busy run-up to Christmas at Ellerker Lodge Garden Centre near Brough in East Yorkshire with a little help from one of his most senior elves – who is a modest 76 years young...
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‘A strong and vibrant ornamental horticulture sector’ the HTA’s general election 2019 manifesto
Ahead of the 12 December general election, the HTA has set out a manifesto outlining the key policy themes and ‘asks’ that are fundamental to developing a strong and vibrant horticulture sector...
Read more»
Christmas on a new high
Christmas is now running ahead of any of the past eight years that we’ve been monitoring volume sales in GTN Bestsellers, even ahead of 2017 which was the record year to date.
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Environmentalist to speak at 2020 GCA conference
Environmentalist Trewin Restorick has been announced as the first speaker booked for the Garden Centre Association’s annual conference in Bristol in January...
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Keenies are still gardening
As we’d expect, growing media volume sales are dropping in the run up to Christmas, but they are staying above last year by a considerable margin. People are still gardening, even after all the wet weather we’ve had – they must be very keen!
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GCA conference attendees to hear from Eden Project co-founder
Attendees at this year’s Garden Centre Association annual conference in January (January 26 until 29, 2020) will hear from co-founder and Executive Vice Chair of the award-winning Eden Project Sir Tim Smit KBE...
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Lights at number one again
As last year decorative bottle lights are again the No 1 Bestsellers as we near the end of November – the volumes this year are much higher...
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NGGV helps boost sales in National Tree Week
As part of National Tree Week (which ends today, Sunday 1 December), the HTA partnered with The Tree Council and the Daily Mail to use the National Garden Gift Voucher scheme to encourage tree sales..
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Pre-Christmas plant boost
Pre-Christmas plant sales saw a boost last week with total plant volumes up on last year for only the sixth week since May...
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Houseplant and pet categories perform well in October, according to HTA Market Update
The changeable wet Autumn weather of 2019 may have dampened outdoor plant sales in October, but houseplant and pet categories performed particularly well this month...
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The best of last week's
If you missed last week's GTN Xtra, below are the most-read stories...
Christmas trees are slimming down
The latest trend in real Christmas trees is a special slim version, which is perfect for smaller living rooms. Recent innovations have culminated in the ‘Slim Shape’ tree, which is particularly well suited to modern, compact rooms...
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Horticultural ‘Oscars’ highlight gardening as force for good
Eliminating plastics from our gardens, the social prescribing of gardening and the leafy love affair of millennials and their houseplants, were just some of the varied subjects being championed by gardening’s greatest influencers, at this year’s horticultural ‘Oscars’, the Garden Media Guild Awards.
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Sustainability brings opportunity for garden industry
Sustainability was the underlying theme of the day from the quality line-up of speakers at the Cultivating Retail Conference held in Nottingham on Tuesday...
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David Austin Roses launches sustainable packaging for bare root planting
As part of the leading rose breeder’s ongoing commitment to reducing its plastic consumption and impact on the environment, David Austin Roses has announced that its range of bare root roses now comes in plastic-free packaging...
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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:
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