In This Issue
Gateacre Garden Centre in Liverpool closing down as owners concentrate on award-winning Burleydam
Act now to avoid missing out on the Green Heart of Glee
Boyd Douglas-Davies on board for Greenfingers
New Point of Sale puts crown on plants for 2015
LazyLawn helps Hull school children chill out
Kent Fire and Rescue Museum finds a new home at Woodlands GC
Gardman urges retailers to ‘make sure they have it covered’
Ten UK firms to exhibit at spoga+gafa in Cologne for the first time
North Thames awards for Podington and Burston
Squires Hersham and Haskins Roundstone are GCA South Thames regional winners
GCA Midlands regional triumphs for Fairways and Webbs
If catering and food are your growth areas our new Food Xtra will help you
Fleuroselect Convention meets at Floranova
Head of Buying
Restaurant Manager
Planteria Manager
Junior Buyer
Buying Assistant
Hortipak sign three-year deal to support HTA National Plant Show
Knowledge is power for Durston Garden Products
Jarloc is the solution to candle theft
Sales of lighting shine brightly
Seed potatoes make a return to Bestsellers chart
Bark sales grow at healthy rate
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
Situations Vacant
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Gateacre Garden Centre in Liverpool closing down as owners concentrate on award-winning Burleydam

Burleydam.jpg

The owners of Gateacre Garden Centre in Liverpool are closing down the store to concentrate on expanding their successful Burleydam centre in Ellesmere Port, voted Best Garden Centre in the GCA North West regional awards (above)

Gateacre, which has been open for more than 80 years, is closing its doors at the end of July.

The garden centre in Acrefield Road was opened by Ernie Williams and is currently run by the third generation of the family.

Ernie, who had originally opened a florist’s shop in West Derby, was a gardening pioneer. In the 1930s he started a landscaping business and rented various sites in south Liverpool before purchasing the land on Acrefield Road and starting to sell to the public. At the time, roses, trees and shrubs could only be sold in the autumn and winter when they could safely be lifted out of the ground.

Ernie and his sons had the idea of using discarded fruit tins from Hartley’s jam factory. This meant that gardening could become a year-round activity as plants could be purchased during the spring months, just when gardeners wanted them.

By the 1960s gardening had become incredibly popular and the Acrefield Road site became Gateacre Garden Centre when it opened as one of the first dedicated garden centres in the country.

His granddaughter, Sally Cornelissen, has had to take the difficult decision to close the centre and said: “Garden centres have evolved and become larger to offer more shopping and gift choices alongside plants and garden products. Cafes and restaurants are now an important part of garden centres and have extended a simple trip out to buy plants into an all-day experience.

“The size and shape of the Acrefield Road site mean we cannot extend our facilities and we also face space and planning issues in relation to car parking. After a great deal of discussion and soul searching we have decided to focus investment in our second site, Burleydam Garden Centre at Little Sutton on the Wirral.  

“There is currently an expansion plan at Burleydam enabling us to improve our retail and catering areas and extend car parking facilities after buying some adjacent land.”

It is hoped that some of the 19 staff who work at Gateacre may consider moving to Burleydam Garden Centre.

Sally added: “Gateacre holds many fond memories and over the years many of our customers and their families have become friends. I would like to take the opportunity to thank them for their support over the years and look forward to welcoming them to Burleydam.”

The Liverpool Echo had reported that the opening of a nearby Dobbies had been a big factor in the closing of the store.

But Sally told GTN Xtra:  "Dobbies have obviously had an effect on business, which would have been no problem had we been able to compete on a level playing field, but we trade off just over an acre in a built-up area and, as you know, out of town sites with their attendant attractions are where the money is going these days. We have purchased further land at Burleydam and consider investment there will have a much greater return.

"Sadly, Gateacre’s closure is a sign of the times for our industry and a very sad time for us. I was brought up climbing peat bales and weighing out grass seed and I remember my mother telling me that on their first date, my father took her – in full evening dress – to stoke up the boilers of the greenhouses on the way home. How times change!"

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