Family owned Hillmount Garden Centre, located in the Castlereagh Hills, is the only garden centre in Northern Ireland to have been awarded four-star quality status by Northern Ireland Tourist Board.
Alan Mercer, managing director of Hillmount Garden Centre, said: “Achieving four-star quality status by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board is testament to the commitment, drive and hard work that we all put in to the business. Our business has been in our family since 1940 and we are constantly striving to make Hillmount a desirable place to visit.
“We have adopted goats and reindeer, developed the first BBQ Academy to be located in a garden centre anywhere in Ireland and invested in increasing the capacity of our restaurant, ‘The Gardeners Rest’, to accommodate 100 diners. We have increased our plant offering to more than 25,000 and we host a monthly ‘Kids Gardening Club’ which has been growing in attendance every month since it started at Easter. This autumn we will host the first drive-in movie at Hillmount and we are hoping to beat last year’s £23,000 fundraising effort for charity with our ever-popular Santa’s Grotto this Christmas.
“Recognition by NITB assures our visitors that we are operating Hillmount at an excellent level.”
NITB’s Quality Grading Scheme has four primary objectives: providing visitors with the means to identify Visitor Attractions which provide the desired quality of facilities and services; helping attraction operators market themselves more effectively by providing an official independent endorsement of their Visitor Attraction; encouraging and acknowledging improvements in standards throughout the industry; and improving the performance of the Visitor Attraction.
Caroline Adams, NITB Quality and Standards Manager said: “This is the first garden centre to achieve four-star status through NITB’s Quality Grading Scheme, which is designed to give visitors a clear idea of the high standards of hospitality, service and facilities they can expect during their visit.
“I commend the Mercer family for their vision and innovation which will undoubtedly raise the bar in providing a new quality visitor experience in the Garden Centre offering and I would encourage other centres to follow Hillmount’s example and become quality assured.”
Hillmount is located in the Castlereagh Hills and was established by the Mercer family in 1940. The garden centre boasts more than 25,000 plants, a BBQ Academy and the 220 seater Gardeners Rest Restaurant. For more information, log onto www.hillmount.co.uk or www.facebook.com/hillmountgardencentre.
