Rosebourne managing director Neville Prest (centre) and latest recruit Val Kempster visited the site of the company's planned new centre in Weyhill, Hampshire, which is due to open in late August 2016.

They were met by Chris Markey, site manager for Barnwood Construction.

The Rosebourne pair admitted they were excited to see construction works commencing on the 8.5 acre site.

Rosebourne, the company founded by former Blooms garden centres chairman Charles Good, has recruited former Garden & Leisure manager Val Kempster to run the new centre.

She was manager of Garden & Leisure's Endsleigh store near Plymouth, now owned by Wyevale Garden Centres.

As a key member of the Garden & Leisure Christmas and gift buying team, she played a major role in Endsleigh's string of successes in GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards. Her first buying trip when she takes up her post in December is likely to be to festive suppliers Kaemingk.  

The new centre, at Weyhill near Andover, will encompass many of the features of the successful Beckworth Emporium food and plant centre model developed by fellow director and former Blooms MD John Kitching at Mears Ashby in Northamptonshire, but with a greater gift and seasonal gardening offer. It is due to open in September 2016.

The store, on an 8.5-acre site near Andover, has a bigger footprint than Beckworth Emporium, whose gift offering takes second place to the food hall, plant area and restaurant.

The Rosebourne team, under Good’s chairmanship, has Neville Prest, former managing director of Garden & Leisure, as MD and includes Jon Kitching and David Brown of Beckworth Emporium and catering specialist Salim Sajid, former retail operations director at Blooms.

The designer of the Weyhill centre is Gary Wilburn of architects HPW.

Rosebourne is reported to be negotiating for a further site in the Reading area.