Hillview Garden Centres have just announced the acquisition of Scotland Nurseries in Derbyshire, expanding their group to 10 centres located across middle England, stretching east to west from Northampton to Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire and north to south from Matlock in Derbyshire to Stokenchurch to Buckinghamshire.
Scotland Nurseries Garden Centre, which is located above Tansley village, on the edge of Matlock, is a strong garden centre business with a 10 acre site. “This is a very well run, family, garden centre business which fits very well within our existing portfolio, not only geographically, but also in the way it has been developed,” said Boyd J Douglas-Davies, Hillview Garden Centres’ CEO, “we’re looking forward to investing in the business to take it to the next stage.”
The nursery was established over 300 years ago and has been owned for the last 30 years by Peter and Yvonne Reynolds. “We've thoroughly enjoyed our time at Scotland Nurseries, but it is time to move on and work on our other business interests”. said Peter, “We thank our customers and staff in particular for their help and assistance in creating the business we hand over today. I’m delighted that the rest of the team will be staying to work with Hillview on developing the potential of the site.”
The sale of the business was handled by specialist garden centre property advisers Gilbert Evans. “There is a good demand for well-run centres across the country at present,” commented Mike Gilbert of Gilbert Evans garden centre team, “the market is as strong as it has been for many years.”
Nadav Livni, MD of The Hillview Group told GTN Xtra: “The progress made by Hillview Garden Centres since 2011 has been excellent and we’re very keen to see the business grow further through the acquisition of single sites and portfolios, as well as the ongoing investment programme across our existing portfolio to create attractive family friendly destination centres. Scotland Nurseries is a great addition to the group as it has a strong business and room to grow."
Hillview Garden Centres acquired their first centre four and a half years ago. “We’re looking to grow the group further over the next couple of years and welcome approaches from operators of garden centres and retail/leisure operations” said Boyd.