After a week spent with numerous garden centres and suppliers at SOLEX and the GIMA Awards where there was much speculation about the Wyevale Garden Centres "Sale of the Century" GTN Xtra has now received confirmation that the process is moving onto the second stage this week.

A spokesperson for Wyevale Garden Centres said this morning: "We are delighted in the interest shown in Wyevale Garden Centres by a range of bidders for the company as a whole, smaller groups and individual sites. We are now entering the second stage of the sale where we will be providing further information to those bidders who have made it through this initial stage.”

At SOLEX there was so much speculation in the air that one senior industry figure commented that it was "like being at a drug dealers convention with people slipping away to have covert conversations but everyone knew what they were talking about." 

Judging from the conversations we had at SOLEX and the GIMA Awards there are some sites that have been bid for many times and there could be some surprise new garden centre owners at the end of the process.  

Suppliers will be looking forward to the next stage of the process moving swiftly so that interest shown by Wyevale buyers at SOLEX can be converted into firm orders.

If you have any comments to make about the Wyevale "Sale of the Century", please use the comments link below or e-mail: trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk