GTN Xtra - GTN Xtra - Issue 41 2015

Contact us with your news. Email neil.pope@tgcmc.co.uk, or trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700

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Will you be one of The Greatest Plant Retailing Teams announced on June 23rd?

The Greatest Plant Retailing Awards are amongst the highlights on Tuesday 23rd June at The National Plant Show...

Perfect plant retailing rewarded at The HTA National Plant Show

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Worlds End and Cleeve Nursery have been The Greatest Planteria Sales Team winners in previous years. For 2015 we have more planteria sales categories. Will your teams be one of The Greatest announced on Tuesday at 3:30pm at The HTA National Plant Show?

GTN Bestsellers date predicts June sales boost

Halfway through June and volume sales continue to run up on last year – 13% up to date according to EPoS data supplied by garden centres for GTN Bestsellers. Last week’s sales even surpassed volumes in the same week of 2013 when we had the previous record June sales after that really dismal April and May of that year.

Lighting product sales still shining brightly

The GTN Bestsellers Garden Products Top 50 chart is still being dominated by lighting lines although plant food for both outdoor and indoor use is showing up prominently in this week’s sales data...

National gardening campaign Cultivation Street wins support from Kew Gardens and Prince’s Foundation

National gardening campaign Cultivation Street has attracted the support of Kew Gardens and The Princes Foundation for Building Community. Major backers from the horticulture industry have also swung behind the contest with a string of UK garden centre giants lending their assistance...

Glee’s Green Heart grows in 2015

Introduced in 2014 to help bring plants back to the centre of Glee, the Green Heart brought together some of the biggest and most respected UK growers to showcase 2015 plant ranges. Incredibly well received the area has undergone some exciting changes ahead of the 2015 show...

Bridgford Garden Centre and Tamar View Nurseries win ‘Pimp up your Roundup’ contest

Bridgford Garden Centre, in East Bridgford, and Tamar View Nurseries Garden Centre, Saltash, are the final winners of this year’s ‘Pimp up your Roundup’, a three-month promotion that challenges independent retailers to get creative when displaying Roundup in store...

Smart stretches the Outside In Designs brand

Having recently announced the purchase of the Outside In Designs Clocks brand, Smart Garden Products surprised their sales team by adding a full range of Lanterns to the concept...

Over 200 new plants to be unveiled at Ball Colegrave’s Summer Showcase

Ball Colegrave’s Summer Showcase takes place between Monday 13th to Friday 31st July and this year’s displays are looking absolutely fantastic...

Thompson & Morgan records best ever spring for website traffic

Visits to www.thompson-morgan.com exceeded 6.5million between Jan-June 2015 with April proving the best ever month for the mail order giant, as 1.64 million users logged on to get their gardens dressed for the season ahead...

Garden Plant of the Month of July - Hydrangea

Thejoyofplants.co.uk has picked the hydrangea as its Garden Plant of the Month for July when the blooms are at their extravagant peak and gardeners everywhere simply cannot believe their luck...

Taylors Bulbs invest in seed potatoes

Taylors Bulbs have announced investments totalling £360k for the supply of seed potatoes to the UK and Irish garden retail market...

All the latest news from the world of garden centre catering

Catering departments serve up good sales for May

The Garden Centre Association’s Barometer of Trade (BoT) results have revealed that garden centres across the country saw catering sales rise during May. Compared to the same time last year (2014) sales in catering departments were up 14.46%...

Catering Tip of the Week: Braille Menu

There are almost two million in people in the UK who are suffering sight loss. Or to put it another way, there are almost two million potential garden centre customers who are suffering sight loss. Are those two million people welcome in your café? asks Garden Centre and Catering Consultant Doug Stewart...

It’s Gold again for The Apple Tree Farm Shop

For the third year running, The Apple Tree Farm Shop at Brimsmore Gardens in Yeovil has been awarded Gold in the Taste of the West Hospitality and Retail Awards 2015...

Window of opportunity for bird care sales

Chris Brown, of Turpin Smale, highlighted bird watching as an area of interest for cafés and restuarants to focus on for attracting customers in his presentation at the HTA Catering Conference...

Garden centres are honey hot spots, according to producer Haughton Honey

Garden centre visitors have an increasing appetite for honey after one producer revealed that the outlets were its top selling stores. Haughton Honey supplies a range of delis, independent shops and garden centres across the North West and Midlands regions...

Forest Garden creates new customer resource with opening of the UK’s largest garden timber trade showroom

Forest Garden, the UK’s largest manufacturer and distributor of garden timber products, has expanded its offering to customers by opening what is thought to be the largest indoor product display in the UK garden and landscape sector, at its Worcestershire head office site...

New low volume order distribution partner for Haemmerlin

The UK’s leading wheelbarrow manufacturer Haemmerlin, has partnered with distributor Ross Handling to be their low volume order supply partner in the UK...

Wyevale Garden Centres supports Garden Party at The Alnwick Garden

Wyevale Garden Centres supported a Garden Party at The Alnwick Garden, hosted by the Duchess of Northumberland, in her role as Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland...

HTA Futures is the venue for The Greatest Garden Centre Team Awards 2015

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Poplars, Groves and Barton Grange have all won Gold in The Greatest Awards. Which garden centres will be leaving the HTA Futures Conference with Gold this year?

Nominate your Garden Centre Teams here

GTN June 2015

Garden Trade News

Tomato plants are biggest veg sales movers

Young tomato plants are the biggest movers in the sales of young veg plants, according to this week’s GTN Bestsellers Veg-2-Gro chart...

Farmyard manure is a top seller

Vital Earth Farm Manure (50 litres) is the star performer in the Growing Media chart, claiming the highest climber accolade and jumping 20 places to No 18...

Bolsius Netherlands announces the sad loss of John Barthorpe

John Barthorpe, Sales Manager for UK & Ireland at Bolsius UK Ltd, died this week after a period of illness...

GroTray joins GroMat and GroBox for Mr Fothergill's 2016 season

Mr Fothergill's has announced the launch of its new GroTray range for the 2016 season. It follows on the success of the GroBox and GroMat collections introduced for the 2015 retail year...

Centurion Europe appoints Peter Stone as Sales & Marketing Director

Leading figure in the UK DIY and garden market, Peter Stone is to leave his current role as home improvement sector director of the British Home Enhancement Trade Association to take up a new position as sales and marketing director of Centurion Europe, the distributor and merchandising expert...

Gorilla Glue returns to TV

Following the success of its inaugural advertising campaign, the UK arm of the US adhesive brand, Gorilla Glue, is returning to TV for the second phase of a heavyweight campaign across a breadth of channels, including Dave, Sky Sports and Discovery...

Invaluable new Retail Display Directory out now

The Shop and Display Equipment Association has published a new guide to the shopfitting and display industry – the SDEA Retail Display Directory 2015/2016...

Police issue warning over missing guns following garden centre raid

Missing air weapons and pellet guns from a large-scale burglary at a garden centre near Truro could pose a serious risk to the public. Police want to recover the outstanding weapons, having already recovered a huge haul following the burglary at the Fishing and Shooting shop at Carnon Downs Garden Centre last month...

Royal Horticultural Society announces Four Communications as sponsorship consultants

Four Communications LTD (Four) has been announced by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) as its new sponsorship consultants. The appointment was made after a competitive pitch process involving three other agencies...

It's been a great year for outdoor living sales, but which garden centre teams are The Greatest?

Shackletons have been regular winners of The Greatest Outdoor Living Sales Team award since 2007. Will they retain their crown in 2015?

Nominate your outdoor living sales teams here

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