Wyevale Garden Centres has today announced the sale of 11 garden centres in four separate transactions to British Garden Centres, The Plant Area Limited (t/a Clandon Park Garden Centre), Coolings Garden Centres and Maidenhead Aquatics.
British Garden Centres will acquire 8 centres: Albrighton, Birchencliffe, Bressingham, Gardenlands, Hemel Hempstead, Louth, Tarporley and Wolseley Bridge. This follows their earlier acquisition of six centres.
In separate transactions, The Plant Area Limited will acquire Woking garden centre, Coolings Garden Centres will acquire Wych Cross garden centre and Maidenhead Aquatics will acquire Dummer garden centre.
Anthony Jones, Chief Operating Officer at Wyevale Garden Centres, said: “The sale of a further 11 centres takes the total number sold to 101 since the sale process began. I’m delighted that these 11 centres will remain as garden centres and would like to thank all colleagues for their commitment and contribution and wish them all well for the future.”
Charles Stubbs, MD of British Garden Centres said: “We are proud to announce the purchase of these additional centres into our rapidly expanding British Garden Centres family. Phillippa, Robert and I and all the British Garden Centres teams are looking forward to supporting the new centres in the set up for the Autumn/Winter trading period. We would like to express our thanks to all involved in this complex purchase process.”
Lee Wong, MD at Clandon Park Garden Centre said: “Clandon Park has been under our independent ownership since 2003 and we are delighted to welcome all the staff at Woking Garden Centre into our company. The two centres serve different towns, but are less than 20 minutes apart and already share many customers offering significant opportunities to work and grow together.”
Paul Cooling, Chairman of the 3rd generation family business said: "The whole team at Coolings is looking forward to welcoming their new colleagues from Wych Cross. The centre and nursery has a great reputation for roses, and is a great fit for Coolings. After completion the centre will close temporarily for refurbishment and will re-open as Wych Cross Nursery on Friday 23rd August."
David Lawrence, MD of Maidenhead Aquatics said “Maidenhead Aquatics are pleased to have acquired Dummer Garden Centre. Having traded from the site for over ten years as a concession it was an opportunity to secure both the future of the site as a local traditional garden centre as well as enhancing and securing our existing specialist aquatics offering. We very much look forward to working with the existing team and further improving the centre.”
Christie & Co, the specialist business property advisor is managing the sale process on behalf of Wyevale Garden Centres. There still remains the opportunity to acquire a small group or a portfolio of well performing garden centres located in attractive locations.
Following the completion of this and other previously announced sales, Wyevale Garden Centres will trade 43 garden centres plus 4 centres trading under license. These include 42 restaurants and 154 concessions with 125 partners. These have been key to driving footfall and de-seasonalising the business, making the centres attractive all year-round destinations.
At the RHS Chelsea Flower Show last month, Guy Hands told GTN Xtra that all of the remaining centres would be sold by the end of the year and at The National Plant Show there were plenty of rumours flying around about other sales and purchases that are in the pipeline.
