An attendance of more than 250 at this week’s HTA Catering Conference in Coventry was proof, if any were needed, of how increasingly seriously the garden centre industry now takes its catering credentials. It was by far the association's best attended catering day to date.

Delegates from garden centres big and small enjoyed presentations embracing best-practice in coffee shop and restaurant management, case studies and consumer trends.

HTA chief executive Carol Paris opened the day with a reminder of how far garden centre catering had developed in the past few years. In 2007/2008, 40 per cent of HTA members had catering of any sort, with an estimated turnover of £130m. Now, she said, catering at member centres totalled £200m of direct household spending and accounted for 15% to 20% of turnover. ”But the real value of our catering is more to do with how you differentiate your garden centre,” she added.

At Fairweather’s Nursery in Hampshire, Patrick and Steff Fairweather re-branded their catering operation three years ago. ‘The Hungry Gardener’ became ‘Steff’s Kitchen’ and capacity was increased from 50 to 100 covers, with a further 100 outside.

The theme, Patrick told delegates at the HTA Catering Conference, was very much home-made – but just as importantly, home-grown. In season, most of the fresh produce is harvested from an educational vegetable and fruit garden, ‘Patrick’s Patch’, which has also become a significant attraction in its own right. “If you can put a lot of veg on the plate, you can make great margins,” he said. “And we have great fruit too. It means you get away from the price pressure of meat and fish.”

Whether you’re a landscaper, garden designer, grower or retailer, the fast-evolving business landscape coupled with the economic uncertainties of recent years has not only made for challenging times but challenges to our time as well;  finding space in busy schedules to just stop, think, learn and plan ahead has become increasingly difficult.

Thank heaven then for Classiflora-Zelari! Whether you’re seeking inspiration, education, motivation or simply a good day out, the Classiflora-Zelari 2014 open days 5th-6th March 2014 will magically pull together those nagging  items from your ’to do’ list and help you keep up with industry developments.



Inspiring retail customers

TV’s James Wong, botanist and foodie grower, will deliver inspiring talks and demonstrations showing retailers how they can better connect with younger gardeners, not only using social/online media but also learning a trick or two from James’s unique ‘pot to plate’ recipes, which have proved to be so popular with the youth market.

And from catwalk to catmint, new exhibitors will include Town & Country designer wellies, and Kelkay landscape products, so when they’ve finished checking out the latest in garden /festival footwear and landscaping materials, buyers can kick-start the growing season browsing Classiflora’s extensive range of shrubs, trees and ornamentals, with 180 bespoke shelf deals.

Streamlining systems and flexible buying

Bespoke shelf deals give buyers the ability to purchase in the most economic and flexible way – just make up your order by mixing and matching the plants you know your customers will buy. Less waste, less risk, more profit!

And Classiflora’s new ordering app is a brilliant innovation that really does save time, enabling a quote to be emailed to a customer with prices, offers and images in just minutes.

Sales & Marketing Manager Andrew Dayes will be happy to demonstrate!

Landscaping inspiration
Landscapers can get their creative juices flowing exploring Classiflora’s unrivalled on-site selection of hardy exterior European specimen plants, trees, shrubs and topiary, including larger architectural plants and specimen trees.

Business education

Neville Stein will be offering two one-hour training and development taster sessions, endorsed by the HTA (with the opportunity to sign up to the complete courses), covering topics that relate to increasing the profitability and loyalty of existing customers and attracting new customers.

Motivating networking opportunities

Catching up with old acquaintances and making new contacts is so much more productive face-to-face and the famous Classiflora- Zelari hospitality makes it all so easy! For landscapers and developers, the APL will be holding one of their popular Networking Seminars on March 6th.

Mouth-watering Tuscan cuisine

Enjoy a delicious, leisurely Italian lunch courtesy of Classiflora-Zelari.

Supporting horticulture’s favourite charity

Classiflora will make a donation to the Greenfingers Charity for every customer who books their open day reservation online. The Greenfingers Appeal builds wonderful gardens for children’s hospices – so every online booking will be helping to create memorable experiences for children and families who use the hospices.  There will also be a raffle in aid of Greenfingers with prizes drawn on both days.

For more information visit www.classiflora.com

VISIT THE UK’S NUMBER ONE GARDENING GLOVES BRAND

Town & Country will be showcasing some of their best-selling gloves and footwear lines, as well as introducing some exciting new designs.  

T&C have been manufacturing gloves for nearly 30 years and offer a comprehensive collection - from top of the range luxury leather gloves, through to hardworking gloves for heavy-duty tasks, and lightweight water-resistant gloves for light-duty jobs requiring dexterity.  Their Master Gardener gloves are the UK’s best-selling gardening gloves.

The company's footwear collection offers a variety of styles to suit all tastes and price points. The range currently comprises slip-on flat shoes, cloggies, ankle boots, short boots and a variety of full length wellingtons, including the top of the range Rutland neoprene-lined boot.

For more information visit: www.townandco.com


BE INSPIRED BY KELKAY AT THE CLASSIFLORA-ZELARI OPEN DAYS

With over 12 years experience in the garden industry, Kelkay offer a strong range of products across aggregate, rockery, paving and fountains.

Kelkay are the number one supplier in the market place on decorative aggregates. The recent acquisitions of leading brands 'Borderstone' and 'Henri' mean that Kelkay have strengthened their offering in natural paving and stone fountains.

So from laying 'Buildmate' sub-base to switching on the 8-piece 'Henri' finial fountain, you can rely on Kelkay to cover the foundations to the finishing touches of a spectacularly created garden.

For more information visit: www.kelkay.co.uk

Charlie Dimmock has been announced as the new face of innovative new product, Gro-Sure Planting Magic. The gardening expert will star in a tongue-in-cheek TV advert, which will be on screens from April to May. 

In the advert Charlie will unwittingly reveal that her long established horticultural success was not in fact down to her green fingers, but down to Planting Magic, which gives gardeners of all levels and abilities the boost they require in the garden. The advert will be seen by over 17 million consumers nationwide. 

With the new Gro-Sure Planting Magic mix, just one handful helps gardeners to grow bigger, healthier plants. That’s because it’s fast acting for strong root growth and contains unique water storing pockets to keep plants looking lively all season long. It can be used with all types of plants, including flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruit and trees and even ericaceous varieties. 

Rebecca Fairbairn, Brand Manager for Gro-Sure, said: “We are delighted to welcome Charlie on board with our quirky and fun TV advert. Our research confirmed that Charlie is much loved by the entire gardening community. Because of this, we felt that she was exactly the right person to promote Planting Magic, a product which gives gardeners of all levels and abilities amazing and long lasting results.” 

The concept for the new product was hit upon after research identified that consumers were looking for a simple-to-use, all-in-one planting product that could be used with any type of plant in the garden to provide amazing season long results. 

TV advertising will kick off on April 14, ready for the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, and will extend until the early May Bank Holiday weekend. It will be featured on ITV1, Channel 4, Five, Sky One, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living and Sky Sports as well other specialist digital terrestrial channels. It forms part of a larger £1.5 million communication campaign which also features national press and garden consumer magazine advertising. 

The battle for market share in the orchid drip feeder category has taken a new turn this week with the number of lines doubling to six in the GTN Bestsellers Garden Products chart, compared to the same week last year.

The net effect of the extra lines is to pull Fito Orchid Drip feeders off the top spot to No.2 as Gardman ladies gloves outsell them. Despite the extra lines, our data shows that the total volume of orchid drip feeders sold has dropped by a third year-on-year.

Steady-as-they-go in the chart too are two Orchid Myst lines from Growth Technology and Bayer Baby Bio Orchid food (although the latter’s drip feeder 4-pack is a new entry). Does anyone have a view about the decline in orchid food total volume sales – fewer orchids being sold, perhaps?

Elsewhere in the chart, two garden torch lines are big movers – are they being snapped up to light flooded areas or just a continuation of winter sales? This week’s chart data came just before the really high winds so we expect to see tree stakes and tree ties back in the chart next week.

Outdoor plant food lines are starting to increase sales – Westland Nutri slow release plant food is our Highest New Entry and Westland Chicken Manure pellets have added at least 50% this week.

Slippery paths and patios are also high on the agenda – Algon Patio cleaner re-enters at No 22, just below Brintons Mould Magic. When the flood waters recede, demand for these could grow further.

See the full GTN Garden Products Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £145.00 per year click here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

Prestopets have been specialist importers and wholesalers of ornamental coldwater and tropical fish to the aquatic industry for 35 years. 

The company's trained staff are always on hand with expert advice and provide a tailored service to every customer. 

"We offer a competitive and efficient service providing coldwater, tropical, marine, aquatic plants, reptiles, amphibians, frozen and live food," said a Prestopets spokesperson.

"Prestopets also offer consolidated direct imports on behalf of our customers arranging own van and driver deliveries within London, Home Counties and Midlands and can also arrange collection from our premises or from London Heathrow airport.

"We use extensive knowledge to buy a wide variety of stock from around the world. We use the best sources of supply available and have regular shipments from Singapore, Israel, Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam, India, Europe, Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and hand selected from UK fish farms.  

"We keep a large range of fish at our extensive 20,000sq.ft. holding facility. We also buy direct supplies of high quality tropical plants (wholesale or consolidated) from world class growers.

"Many of our fish are tested at independent laboratories in the UK and overseas.  Regular checks are also carried out by CEFAS at point of import and at our holding facility."

Prestopets offer an online ordering service, low minimum orders, nationwide deliveries and own van and driver deliveries using specially adapted heated vans providing a consistent temperature during the winter months.

The company offers customers with weekly stock updates, special offers and seasonal promotions, and managers’ specials.

For more information visit  www.prestopets.co.uk

An  account by Lauren Cocks (above), marketing manager at East Yorkshire garden centre Coletta & Tyson, of the how their new café had taken the garden centre forward, contained some impressive statistics.

Targeting primarily the over-60s market, turnover had grown from £157,000 in the orginal 60-covers café to £458,000 in the new 192-seater, where as many ingredients as possible were sourced within a 25-mile radius. Lauren said that since they had started baking their own cakes, the margin had increased from 52 to 84 per cent.

Elly Yates (right), co-owner of the Plantation garden centre near Knutsford, Cheshire, spelled out the three essentials that has made their re-vamped Colonial Café such a success – “great coffee, irresistible cakes and great soup –great food in lovely surroundings.”

Like Coletta & Tyson, most of their produce is locally sourced – and they make sure customers know about it. “What makes us different?” she asked. “It’s us! We are there all the time, we keep wastage to a minimum and we appreciate the difference between home-baked cakes and bought-in. We even choose our own coffee blend from the roaster.”

Plantation’s ‘catering bus’ is an innovation others will surely copy. Parked outside the entrance, it offers “quick fix” coffee and cakes and is used to promote the centre at local shows.

Since the re-vamp, Elly said, café turnover had doubled and gross margin improved from 61% to 73%, more than 100% to net profit from catering.

Bents Garden & Home smashed its fundraising target for 2013 by more than £4,500 to raise a staggering £17,023 for its charity of the year, The Christie, and allowing the organisation to buy a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Bed.

Mary McLaughlin from The Christie charity visited Bents to accept the donation and was joined for the occasion by The Christie Bear and Joel Oxberry with Humphrey Bear from Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, the Centre’s 2014 charity of the year. 

Said Matthew Bent, Managing Director at Bents Garden & Home:  “Once again our colleagues and customers have been hugely generous in helping us to raise such a fantastic amount.  The Christie is the largest cancer centre in Europe treating more than 40,000 patients each year. 

"It has been pioneering cancer research breakthroughs for over 100 years and we hope that our donation will go some way towards helping their work continue well into the future.  

“We are now looking forward to working with Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital during 2014, and hope to be as similarly successful in our fundraising achievements.”

Mary McLaughlin added: “We would like to thank everyone at Bents and all their customers for the wonderful support and generosity they have shown The Christie throughout 2013. The Christie charity relies on donations from companies like Bents to help provide the best treatment and care for cancer patients at The Christie.” 

Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital is now the largest single-site children’s hospital in the UK, looking after over 200,000 young people each year and providing the very best care in a variety of specialities including bone marrow transplantation, burns treatment and critical care.  

Bents has once again set itself a target of £12,500 to help fundraise for improved treatment, care and research. 

Said Joel Oxberry from Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital ”“RMCH is very excited to be Bents’ chosen charity. Donations we receive are crucial in ensuring we can improve the care, research and treatment for children throughout the UK; we cannot wait to see the difference that Bents can make!”

Pictured: Mary McLaughlin and The Christie Bear with Matthew Bent and Humprey Bear and Joel Oxberry from Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

The garden industry is starting off 2014 on a much firmer footing than 2013 with end of the year sales volumes at garden centres 6% up. That's according to the latest HTA Market Update figures, which also revealed that December sales alone were 6% higher than the previous year, buoyed by a strong performance in Christmas ranges.

The economy is now showing definite signs of recovery which bodes well for 2014 although there are still questions over how sustainable or strong the recovery will be. Consumer confidence is now at its highest level for six years and consumers’ willingness to believe that now is a good time to make major purchases has increased. Another encouraging sign if this willingness extends to major garden purchases or improvements.

This edition of HTA Market Update looks back at the figures from the HTA’s Garden Retail Monitor which provides a view of garden centre sales. Some of the highlights include bedding plant sales (5% up in 2013), landscaping product sales (12% up) and Christmas (7% up).

There is also a sneak preview of some eyetracker research which shows how consumers shop bedding displays. This is a great demonstration of how colour blocking and well thought out plant displays can engage consumers’ senses and drive impulse purchasing.

HTA Chief Executive Carol Paris comments: “With the economy now in recovery mode and consumer confidence on the up it will be the weather that decides whether 2014 turns out to be a good season.”

She adds, “I would encourage you to view the Eyetracker clip which provides a fascinating insight into what catches the eye when shoppers are viewing bedding displays.”

Download the HTA Market Update from http://bit.ly/1aNmWek

Newbridge Nurseries in Horsham, West Sussex, has been declared as the country’s Most Improved Garden Centre 2013/2014 by the Garden Centre Association... 

Managing Director of the Broadbridge Heath-based garden centre, Nigel Wait explained: “Tim Mason, who is currently the Chairman of the South Thames group, visited us to present me with the award in person.

“I am absolutely delighted with this accolade and it is a testament to all the hard work of the dedicated team involved with running the business. It’s a proud moment for us all and we’re going to display this Dick Allen Award for the country’s Most Improved Garden Centre 2013/2014 for all to see and so that our customers can share it with us.”

Newbridge Nurseries has been at Broadbridge Heath, Horsham for more than 30 years, originally growing shrubs and bedding plants to sell through its small retail shop on site.

Nigel, who runs the family-owned business, added: “The old nursery was sold in 1995 to my family, which was supplying Newbridge at the time with plants, and we then developed it into a modern retail garden centre. We have continued to expand into one of the largest independently-owned garden centres in Sussex, still very much specialising in plants.

“The garden centre was further enhanced by the opening of a restaurant in February 2012 called Stooks. Set in a beautiful, traditional building, Stooks has become a very successful and busy fresh food restaurant.”

For further details contact Newbridge Nurseries, Billingshurst Road, Broadbridge Heath, Horsham, West Sussex on 01403 272686 or visit www.newbridgenurseries.co.uk

Pictured: Tim Mason, Chairman of the South Thames GCA group (right), presents Nigel Wait, Managing Director from Newbridge Nurseries, with the Dick Allen Award for the country’s Most Improved Garden Centre.

Hollywood star Jude Law and Dr Who actor David Tennant have joined the growing list of household-name celebrities to support Garden Re-Leaf Day’s popular Gardening Quiz, by recording a round of questions.  The brain-teasing audio quiz is available as a customer event opportunity to any garden centre taking part in the annual fund-raising day in March.

The two stars join Skyfall’s ‘Miss Moneypenny’, actress Naomie Harris – currently on cinema screens as Winnie Mandela in Long Walk to Freedom – in presenting a section of the questions.  EastEnders cast members Danny Dyer (new Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter) and Patsy Palmer (fiery market trader Bianca Butcher) have also lent their familiar voices to the quiz, in addition to a round recorded by impressionist Alistair McGowan – in the vocal style of celebrities John Humphrys, David Mitchell, Matt Baker, Dara Ó Briain and Stephen Fry.

David Tennant, Naomie Harris and Alistair McGowan have agreed to support Garden Re-Leaf Day’s popular Gardening Quiz.

The quiz – which includes both general knowledge and gardening rounds – can be ordered by all retailers, suppliers and other organisations participating in Garden Re-Leaf Day; with funds raised going towards its chosen charity, Greenfingers. The production of the quiz and accompanying CDs are being provided by Garden Radio, as part of its support for Garden Re-Leaf Day.

The quiz is also a ready-made opportunity to boost customer footfall, as Garden Re-Leaf Day’s founder and Hillview Garden Centre CEO Boyd Douglas-Davies explains: “We’re enormously grateful that so many mainstream stars have supported this year’s Garden Re-Leaf Day quiz – it will be more popular than ever!  It’s a simple way for retailers both to take part in Garden Re-Leaf, and attract scores of customers in-store at the start of the spring gardening season.  You can make the event even more effective by running other sales promotions, refreshments and fund-raisers alongside. The organiser’s pack costs just £100 and is available by calling 01993 871456 or emailing pat@gca.org.uk”

Garden centres and suppliers across the UK are expected to take part in the third annual Garden Re-Leaf Day, held on Friday 14 March 2014 and across the weekend. Participants – who can run any number of nationally-coordinated or local fund-raising initiatives – are being urged to register their involvement as soon as possible by emailing the organising team at info@gardenreleaf.co.uk with an overview of your planned activities.  Your location and events will then be added to the Garden Re-Leaf Day website: www.gardenreleaf.co.uk.

As in its first two years, Garden Re-Leaf Day’s nominated charity in 2014 is Greenfingers; the nationwide charity dedicated to building gardens in children’s hospices around the UK. Since 2012 Garden Re-Leaf Day participants have raised more than £116,000 for the cause; enabling several life-enhancing hospice gardens to be created.    

In December it was announced that garden centres taking part in Garden Re-Leaf Day can also win a ‘money-can’t buy’, footfall-boosting visit to their garden centre by popular ITV gardener David Domoney on Sunday 16 March 2014 (the Sunday immediately after Garden Re-Leaf Day). David is offering a series of 30-minute expert talks on that date to the garden centre that wins Garden Re-Leaf Day’s new, free to enter ‘Gardening Date with David’ competition – which has a closing date of Friday 7 February 2014.

Any garden retailer registering their participation in Garden Re-Leaf Day by 7 February is eligible to enter. To register for Garden Re-Leaf Day and enter the ‘Gardening Date with David’ competition, email info@gardenreleaf.co.uk by 7 February with your garden centre details, also stating in 200 words or less, how you would make the most of David’s visit on 16 March as part of Garden Re-Leaf Day.  The best idea wins him.

TV presenter and gardening journalist Richard Jackson, an active supporter of both Greenfingers and Garden Re-Leaf Day, confirmed: “The quiz and David Domoney competition are both fantastic, easy ways of taking part in Garden Re-Leaf Day this year; benefiting both your business and the Greenfingers charity. Everyone wins, so let’s make this a record-breaking year!”

Having proven its economic model, Greenfingers.com is now looking to double the scale of its business in the next three years.

According to Kevin Hague, MD: “In the 10 years since we acquired Greenfingers.com we have successfully transformed it from a heavily loss making catalogue company to a profitable pure online player with exceptional growth prospects. We have patiently refined the business model so that we can now self-fund our growth and have put in place infrastructure and capacity plans to double the business in the next 3 years.”

As well as extending the warehouse capacity at their premises in Livingston, Greenfingers.com are close to a full website re-launch which will apply the best practice lessons learnt from the highly successful site re-launch of sister company, PetPlanet.co.uk in 2013.

Kevin continued “We have always believed that the key to building a successful business is hiring and nurturing the most talented people. We believe one our key competitive differentiators is the commerciality of our product range and this is underpinned by best-in-class buying and merchandising practices.”

Currently, Greenfingers.com is seeking a Senior Buyer to bolster their team. Click here to view the full job description.

A man broke into a Surrey garden centre and stole nothing.

Police want help identifying the man in this CCTV image taken during the burglary at Allwoods Nursery, in Cuddington Way, Cheam, on Monday, February 10, at 2.15am.

A window to the office had been forced open and the drawers searched although nothing was believed to have been taken.

The man is described as white, of slim build with white hair, wearing a light jacket and back pack.

If you have any information call Sutton Police station on 101 quoting ref no: 4001500/14 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

There are five tomato seed lines in the GTN Bestsellers Veg-2-Gro chart this week – and a 20% increase in sales volume gives all the indication we need that anything tomato flavoured is likely to be a best seller this year. (Even Tomorite Giant Tomato Planters saw the biggest week-on-week percentage sales increase in the Growing Media chart).

Tomato ‘Gardener’s Delight’ from Thompson & Morgan is the highest climber of the week, up 20 places to No.9. Taylors’ ‘Stuttgarter Giant’ Onion Sets have taken the No.1 spot with ‘Red Baron’ not far behind. With Valentine’s Day here, perhaps ‘Red Baron’ will make it to the top spot in next week’s chart - or perhaps your analyst is just an old romantic...

Beetroot sales volumes are looking good – ‘Boltardy’ and ‘Rainbow’ are both in theTop 20.

See the full GTN Veg 2 Gro Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £145.00 per year click here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

The organisers of Garden Re-Leaf Day – the annual season-starting garden retail event in aid of children’s hospice garden charity Greenfingers – have announced a new and simple way to enable garden product and plant suppliers to get involved in time for March 14...

The ‘Loose Change’ scheme involves suppliers placing special, coin-shaped stickers in denominations of 50p or £1 – available from Greenfingers – on products of their choice, either before despatch or after delivery to the retailer. 

The selected products can then be featured in dedicated Garden Re-Leaf Day product displays set up by participating garden centres, with the stickers showing consumers how much money the supplier will donate to the Greenfingers ‘Rosy Cheeks Appeal’ upon purchase of the goods.

The Loose Change initiative aims to ensure no supplier, or retailer, misses out on Garden Re-Leaf Day’s promotional and fund-raising opportunities due to time and budget constraints. 

The idea was devised by former Gardman marketing director Jane Lawler, who is now helping to support the partnership between Greenfingers and Garden Re-Leaf Day. 

Jane (left) explained:  “Loose Change offers a fast and easy way for product suppliers and growers to take part in Garden Re-Leaf Day and be associated with the appeal.  You can buy just a few stickers for a small display in a single centre, or hundreds for distribution across all your participating customers.  

"The consumer pays just the normal in store price – but with the knowledge that 50p or £1 of their purchase is being paid to the Greenfingers Rosy Cheeks Appeal on their behalf by the product supplier.”

The Greenfingers Rosy Cheeks Appeal aims to raise £750,000 over two years to fund the creation of at least ten more, unique children’s hospice gardens.  “By suppliers offering these specially labelled products, Greenfingers will be able to give more families the gift of spending precious time together in the fresh air, away from the hospice bedside, in carefully designed gardens,” added Jane.

The Loose Change initiative follows the announcement of support for the Garden Re-leaf Day quiz from celebrities such as Jude Law, David Tennant, Alistair MacGowan and Patsy Palmer; and a competition for garden centres to win a visit from ITV’s Love Your Garden presenter, David Domoney.

Garden centres across the UK are registering to run special events and activities for Garden Re-Leaf Day, which takes place on Friday 14^th March and across the weekend.

Find out more

• Suppliers looking to take part in the Loose Change promotion should call 01494 674749 or contact info@gardenreleaf.co.uk
• Retailers and suppliers wanting to participate in Garden Re-Leaf Day need to register their details on www.gardenreleaf.co.uk
• Retailers looking to enter the free, ‘Gardening Date with David’ competition should email info@gardenreleaf.co.uk by the closing date of February 7
• Anyone wishing to run the Garden Re-Leaf Day Celebrity Gardening Quiz, can order an organiser’s pack (£100) from 0118 930 8918 or email pat@gca.org.uk

Joe Awome has been appointed to handle Pre & Post Sales Customer Support for the South West, North West and Wales for the horticultural Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) company Eastill.

In his new position the 39-year-old will deal with all aspects of customer support before and after the purchase of an Easitill system, as well as installation and training.

Joe said: “I am pleased to have secured my new role with Easitill and I’m looking forward to helping the company progress.

“My day-to-day duties include dealing with a variety of support calls from customers, installing new systems at garden centres and training customers on how to use our software.”

Prior to his role at Easitill Joe worked for Retail Systems Group in a similar position and before that was in the Royal Marines for six years where he completed a computer engineer course.

Joe, who is married with two children, enjoys coaching an under 14s football team and playing poker at a semi-professional level.

Managing Director, Rob Gardner, said: “We would like to congratulate Joe on his new position in the company. We look forward to working with him to develop the future of the business and our systems.”

Easitill assists small to medium-sized garden centres with EPoS, website, mobile and mail order solutions to improve the profitability and quality of their business operations.

It has a dedicated support telephone number and due to the way it trains its staff all employees have the knowledge to help customers, regardless of whether they work in the sales, administration, development or support teams. Clients can also email key personnel or entire departments for a call back.

For further details, please call Easitill on 01604 882030, email support@easitill.co.uk or visit www.easitill-horticultural.co.uk.

Even with the wet weather, it was a good week for growing media sales – they were up 8% with all but 12 of the Top 50 lines increasing sales week-on-week.

But sales totals were down a disappointing 27% on the same week last year.

Highest re-entry was the Levington Tomorite Giant Planter, back in at No.13. Highest Climber was Westland’s 30L ericaceous compost with John Innes, while the highest new entry was a 25L pack of J.Arthur Bowers John Innes Seed Compost - a true gardener’s purchase. Westland Multi Purpose 50L took back the No 1 slot as Jack’s Magic slipped to No.10.

See the full GTN Growing Media Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £145.00 per year click here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

HTA events team apprentice Chloe Bye has been nominated for the ‘best apprentice in a small business’ category in the Newbury College Apprenticeship Award programme.

Chloe, who joined the HTA in February 2013, is working towards her NVQ Level 2 Certificate in Marketing. Since joining the HTA Chloe has been involved in a number of key events such as the HTA Biosecurity Conference, HTA National Plant Show, HTA Garden Futures Conference, HTA Seasonal Plants Focus Conference and the HTA Catering Conference.

The Awards presentation takes place on 5 March at Newbury College, during National Apprenticeship Week (March 3-7).

Commenting on Chloe’s nomination HTA Chief Executive Carol Paris said: “It is fantastic news to hear that Chloe has been nominated for this award. Throughout the course of the year Chloe has had a lot of hands on experience of all aspects of event management and is a valued member of the team.”

She adds, “Apprenticeships are proving to be a real choice now for young talented people and business should take the opportunity to recruit and develop young talent now, to secure the future. This is the approach we have taken at the HTA with apprentices in our events and IT teams.”

According to the National Apprenticeship  Service 96% of employers that take on an apprentice report benefits to the business including the introduction of new ideas, improved staff morale and better staff retention.

With the addition of a new 50 Value Pack bag of No Nets Fat Snax, Gardman is providing retailers with a full range of non-netted Fat Snax products as part of its proactive strategy designed to persuade consumers to move away from netted suet.

In the future Gardman will offer five No Nets Fat Snax products (six pack, 12 pack, 25 pack, 50 Value Pack bag and 50 Value Pack tub) and only two netted Fat Snax products (six pack and 50 Value Pack tub).  

“While making it possible for our retail partners to meet the demand of those consumers who still wish to buy netted Fat Snax, our goal is to help people change their preference and move towards non netted suets,” explained Duncan Ross, Sales Director for Garden Centres at Gardman. 

“We will therefore be focusing our promotional and marketing resources on No Nets Fat Snax moving forwards.”

The all in one fruit and vegetable protection system from Popadome, launched as part of the Innovators Zone at Glee 2013 is set to makes its mark in garden retail outlets this spring.

The concept of the pop-up cover may have been seen before but not one of this standard and quality of materials and manufacture. However the real item of innovation on the Popadome is the incorporation of the copper strip around the hem which will deter slugs and snails from entering the 1.2m x 1.2 m protected area.

Keeping out butterflies and birds, the Popadome will protect Brasicas and other veg as well as soft fruit and even newly sown areas of lawn.

The Popadome is designed to work in both UK gardens and allotments, protecting everything from new sowings to full grown plants. They can be used singly or in multiple arrangements. Additionally, with the netting being a fine black mesh, the Popadome is unobtrusive in any environment.

All crops are in danger of being spoilt by an endless array of garden pests, especially birds, slugs, rodents, cats & dogs as well as those most hated of garden pests, slugs and snails. The protective net prevents birds & butterflies reaching plants, yet it allows access to pollinating insects such as bees.

"While consumers can buy on line from our website at £39.99 it is a product tha  they really need to see in the flesh to appreciate its potential," said its inventor Marion Smith.

“We have a really good display box which holds 32 selling units, and retail outlets make in excess of 50% margin selling at £29.99”

Full details of Popadome can be found on their website www.popadome.co.uk  and details of all GIMA member companies are available on the GIMA website – www.gima.org.uk

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has announced its ‘Top Ten' garden pests for 2013 with slugs and snails topping the list for a second consecutive year.

Exceptional levels of rainfall in 2012 that produced one of the wettest summers on record created the perfect mild, damp conditions for slugs and snails to thrive; this appears to have ensured their traditional dominance of the list continued into 2013.

While slugs and snails continued to frustrate gardeners, perhaps the biggest surprise of the 2013 list was the appearance of plum moths (8th) which had never before featured among the top ten garden pests.

Mice and voles (4th) also saw a sharp increase in enquiries with numbers hitting a 24-year high.

Vine weevil is a top five enquiry in most years and 2013 was no exception, with the pest occupying the number two spot.

Others pests which increased in the number of enquiries were capsid bugs (3rd) - in 2013 enquiries reached the highest level for 25 years.

Other top ten pests included cushion scale (5th), glasshouse red (two spotted) spider mite (6th), mealybug (7th), ants (=9th) and lily beetle (=9th).

Further information on controlling garden pests is available on the RHS website www.rhs.org.uk.

Every week GTN receives and analyses epos data from a number of UK garden centres to produce the GTN Bestsellers charts and weekly bestsellers sales tips.

The full charts which provide useful insight into product sales peaks, new trends and new link sales opportunities are published in the weekly GTN Xtra printed newsletter and on the GTN website www.gardentradenews.co.uk.

As the year goes on we give sales volume comparisons with 2012 as well as 2013 to allow your teams to see variations over a three year period.

Access is by subscription only.  For £145.00 per year you and your team can have access to the most upto date gardening sales analysis that has already helped many UK garden centres increase their sales.  To subscribe call 01733 775700, or subscribe on-line here

or e-mail karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

Highlights of the GTN Garden Products Bestsellers chart for this week are here

Highlights of the GTN Veg-2-Gro Products Bestsellers chart for this week are here

Highlights of the GTN Growing Media Bestsellers chart for this week are here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts seriously improve the business of our subscribers.  Invest 15 minutes each week in improving your sales using the GTN Bestsellers charts and your turnover and customer satisfaction will improve too.