Exponent Private Equity announced on Friday that it had completed the purchase of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company's interests in Europe and Australia, and pledged to invest in more media and innovation to grow the business.

The purchase includes Scotts Miracle-Gro operations in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and the UK. Scotts Miracle-Gro brands and products will continue to be manufactured and marketed in Europe and Australia as a result of licensing and sub-licensing agreements.

In Europe, the brands include Roundup, Weedol, Pathclear, EverGreen, Levington, Miracle-Gro, KB, Fertiligène, Substral, Osmocote and Naturen. Among the brands in Australia are Scotts, Osmocote, Naturen, Roundup, Home Defense and Pure Organics.

Exponent have appointed a senior leadership group to lead the international business based out of the UK office in Frimley, Surrey. Karl Kahofer will lead the group as CEO alongside Ted Linehan as chief commercial officer and Martin Lofnes, CFO. Between them they bring a wealth of consumer goods experience and expertise.

Sheila Hill, UK country manager (right), said: “We are delighted to have finalised the sale of the business to Exponent and are excited about the future of our business with our new owners and leadership team. We look forward to strong investments in our brands and categories with more media and innovation. In the meantime we are focused on being ready for next season and ensuring we continue to deliver an excellent service to our customers and consumers. In fact nothing much changes as the transition begins - working with the same people, same strong brands, under the same arrangements, with the name The Scotts Company (UK) Ltd.”

Exponent is an experienced investor in consumer businesses with turnovers between £75m and £400m and high-growth potential. The acquisition is Exponent's first investment in the lawn and garden market. Since its foundation in 20054, acquisitions have include businesses from Premier Foods, DMGT, BBC, News Corporation, Umeco, Live Nation, Virgin and Elere.

Simon Davidson, a partner at Exponent, said: “These are market-leading garden care brands loved by consumers around the world. We look forward to working with Scotts Miracle-Gro and investing further in advertising and innovation to continue to grow these brands and unlock the full potential of the business.”

Millions of British consumers are clicking on Google AdWords ads every day. Garden Connect helps you to attract visitors from your own area to your garden centre via dedicated AdWords campaigns and effective online bannering. A very smart way to get more footfall into your garden centre and to make it even better: Garden Connect is offering both services the first 3 months for free!

How does AdWords work?

You can target visitors based on keywords and their location via AdWords. So if consumers are looking for olive trees in Northampton, your garden centre in Northampton can be shown. It may sound easy but AdWords is a job on its own! Garden Connect is a Google Partner and has got a team of certified marketeers working solely on AdWords campaigns. That’s how we assure we get a good return on your pennies compared to doing it yourself!

What do we do?
At Garden Connect we focus on relevant keywords for your garden centre. So we don’t try to get as many people as possible on your website but aim to get value for money. We analyse every step: from the first click to the page visitors leave your website. As soon as possible we get rid of keywords which aren’t working to save you budget.

Effective online bannering via remarketing
Consumers have a short memory: if they don’t see your brand for a while they will forget that you exist. Garden Connect is now introducing our Remarketing service which allows you to show your banners and advertisements to customers in your own geographical location; they will be shown on well-known websites like the BBC, Telegraph and Daily Mail.

What is remarketing?
Every time that visitors open your website a small cookie is placed on their device. This allows us to show a banner to visitors within a geographical radius from your garden centre when they read the news, play a game or lookup some gardening tips.

To avoid annoyance, these banners will only be shown a couple of times a week to each individual consumer but over a long period of time. This will keep your brand top of mind to the people who are interested in your garden centre and who matter most, especially those who are located in your own area!

What do the banners look like?
Bespoke banners will be designed by Garden Connect or you can provide your own. Alternatively, we can also link banners to your website or webshop to show your latest promotions or newest products automatically. Banners will be designed for desktop, tablet and mobile to be sure consumers will see your brand regardless of the device they use.

How much does it cost?

Showing a banner will cost you less than £0.025 per customer. That’s right: over 1.000 banner impressions for less than £2.50! Garden Connect has several services available starting at just £25 per month excl. VAT. for remarketing and just £75 per month for Google AdWords which include a minimum of 300 visitors per month.

Signup in August or September to benefit from maximum exposure over the busy Christmas season and to get your first 3 months free!

Go to the website for more information, visit us at Glee (stand 20F31) or call +44 203 475 5541.

Bathgate Horticulture continue to expand their growing media products with further additions to the award winning Champions Blend range, the latest Seed and Cutting formulation and Extra-large Planter (pictured on cover page) have been well received and produced excellent results.

The John Innes range now includes an Ericaceous option as well as smaller 10-litre bags of No 1, 2 & 3.  A new 50-litre premium quality certified Play Grade Bark and extended range of 10-litre bags have increased overall retail brand appeal.

The professional range is further enhanced with our latest Coir based Peat Free formulation, which is easy to use and is a lightweight free-flowing growing medium.

Bathgate’s compost continues to impress and has been endorsed by many professional growers and horticultural enthusiasts,  including allotment holder, broadcaster and writer Terry Walton and Mike Smith of Tom Smith Plants. Mike used Bathgate growing media for all his plants in his displays at the RHS Chelsea and Tatton Park Flower Shows.  Mike said: “Bathgate compost is a quality growing media and we look forward to using it on all fruit and vegetable show gardens in the future.”

Bathgate Horticulture offer nationwide deliveries from a single pallet to full loads.

If you are looking for a quality growing media and associated product range manufactured to market leading standards visit Bathgate’s stand at Four Oaks and Glee to find out about their extensive horticultural range and to be in with a chance of winning an iPad Mini.

Four Oaks: Stand E123-125

Glee: Stand 20N36-P37

Web: click here 

Tel: 01270 762828

Email: click here

Woodstock Chimes UK has announced three new products to be seen for the first time at Glee this month. These chimes and bells are already popular in the United States and are sure to become big sellers in the UK.

Bells of Paradise, now in Burgundy!

The new Bells of Paradise™ – Burgundy is joining the Bronze, Silver and Rainforest Green versions currently available. It comes in Large and Medium versions.

This contemporary beauty is tuned using an ancient system known as just intonation. This means the frequencies at which the different tubes vibrate are related to one another by simple whole-number ratios. Tones that are related in this way produce the purest, most beautiful musical intervals.

This chime bathes the listener in enduring harmony every time the wind blows, creating a serene and private paradise.



Bells of Paradise – Large, Burgundy. Also available in Medium.

Woodstock Chakra Bells™ Offer a Swirl of Colour and Sound

Woodstock Chakra Bells combine coloured stones and sound to underscore the ancient meaning of the major energy centres of the human body.

According to tradition, there are seven chakras correlating to areas of the human spine:

• Red for the Base Chakra (physical identity)
• Orange for the Sacral Chakra (creativity)
• Yellow for the Solar Plexus Chakra (growth)
• Green for the Heart Chakra (love)
• Turquoise for the Throat Chakra (sound)
• Blue for the Brow Chakra (intuition)
• Pink for the Crown Chakra (thought)

 Woodstock Chakra Bells

Incredibly Popular, Woodstock Agate Chime™

Tuning up…

Woodstock Agate Chimes feature genuine agate windcatchers. Sliced thin to reveal its translucent beauty, each piece of agate is unique and as such, no two of these chimes are alike!

Available in five colours:

• Blue symbolises tranquility.
• Brown symbolises the earth.
• Green symbolises nature.
• Red symbolises passion.
• Purple symbolises spirituality.

Woodstock Agate Chimes

Also available as an assortment (1 of each colour)

and as a package (4 of each colour and a free display).

Hearing a Woodstock Chime is like listening to a

perfectly tuned musical instrument, played by the wind...

• Authentic and original musically tuned windchime
• Premier quality, affordable & value priced
• Created by GRAMMY® Award-winning musician Garry Kvistad
• The choice of discerning UK customers for nearly 40 years
• Chimes are in stock and ship within 48 hours from our UK warehouse

 See all the Woodstock Chimes UK products here

 Web: click here

White Pebble International
Unit 2, Plot 11, Terminus Road
Chichester PO198 TX UK
Tel +44(0)1243 780501
Fax +44(0)1243 839332
Email: click here

Despite a very slow start to the month, August total sales volumes at garden centres were up on 2016 levels by 1.3% and above the average for the previous six years.

As plants, bulbs and garden decoration products fly off the shelves in the last week of August, signs are promising that an Indian summer may deliver good sales levels during September.

We all now look forward to Glee next Monday, 11 September, to see all the new products vying for the Glee New Product Awards, in association with GTN. How many of them will be in our Bestsellers charts next year?

See you there!

 A cracking last two weeks of August for plant sales means overall plant volumes were 10.3% up year-on-year for the month, according to Epos data from GTN Bestsellers.

This last week of the month saw sales up by 37% on the last week of August 2016 with big increases in Pansy  and Heuchera sales a stand-out feature at the Top of the GTN Bestsellers Chart.

• Pansy sales increased by 20%, keeping them at No 2.
• Heucheras sold 12% more than last week, moving up one place to No 3.
• Papaver’s were the highest re-entry for the week at No 21. Iceland Poppy ‘Garden Gnome’ being the biggest seller in the EPoS data.

All Plants volume sales change week-on-week: UP 11.8% on last week. UP 36.8% on the same week last year.

To subscribe to GTN Bestsellers email karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

Timber garden products supplier Zest 4 Leisure is marking its fifth consecutive year at Glee (stand 2OS32-T33) with an impressive new range of products for the 2018 season.

Zest will be showcasing innovative new products including a diamond trellis arch, a new pergola seat, al fresco dining sets, planters, grow-your-own lines and more.

Zest recently announced a collaboration with Cardiff Metropolitan University in creating the new graduate product development role, to focus on innovation and new ranges
.

MD Steve Morgan said: “Working alongside the University will enable us to monitor and develop future trends and initiatives and we expect our innovation offering to go from strength to strength and our 2019 products to be even more cutting-edge and on-trend.”

Zest’s new products include:

• The Meridian Pergola Seat
• The Denver Arbour Swing with new Perspex and timber panels
• The Emily Corner Bench with matching Coffee Table/Bench, part of the Emily range and sold separately
• The Bahama Large Round Table & 4 Stool Set
• A Stepped Herb Planter (pictured) and Vertical Herb Stand
• The Eaton Planter

From matching outdoor furniture with a variety of seating options and side tables to arbours to picnic tables, BBQ shelters and swings, Zest can supply a wide range of outdoor products. Manufactured from pressure treated FSC-certified timber, all of Zest’s garden furniture is offered with a 10-year guarantee against rot.

Check out the picture gallery below for more new product images.

Can you tell us more about what products you will displaying?

We’ll be displaying a selection of Elho’s new and best-selling pots. What we’ve found is that colour is one of the main things that attracts garden centre customers when they’re exploring the aisles. We’ll be showcasing how retailers can utilise colour to best effect - even if people end up buying more muted tones of pots.

Why did you choose to become a preferred supplier of the Retail Lab @ Glee 2017?

The decision was actually very easy. At Elho we’re all about bringing nature into people’s everyday lives. The four global trends the Retail Lab has identified of Community, Family, Re-wilding and Well-being resonate with our own vision and how we’re working both with the trade and also communicating with consumers. 

What changing trends are you witnessing, and how are they affecting your business? What future trend excites you the most?

As urbanisation takes over and our access to nature becomes more restricted, we’ve really noticed a trend towards turning any outdoor space into a garden. Balconies, terraces, vertical spaces are becoming green with easy-to-fit balcony pots and vertical gardens and drainpipe clickers.

What’s also exciting is to see the growth in house plants and pots used as interior accessories. While this has been a trend in Europe for a while, the UK has lagged behind. But we’re catching up fast and every garden centre we speak to is increasing its range of interior pots. We invest a lot in understanding colour trends, researching everything from fashion to technology. This enables Elho to bring out ranges that are bang on trend every year. We’ll be showing these new colours at Glee. 

We’re also seeing a resurgence in grow-your-own. It’s felt that the movement that began stalled slightly in the past few years. It’s now picked up apace. And this grow-your-own isn’t just for people with allotments or larger gardens. Balcony allotments and windowsill growing is an exciting trend which is why we’re bringing out a grow house for balcony pots. Our Grow Table continues to do extremely well as it provides space for growing is small gardens, patios and terraces - and people love how it combines design with function. 

What value do you think the Retail Lab will offer retailers/buyers?

Garden trade shows are not just about seeing new products, they’re about inspiring visitors to change how they do business, to excite them and to reinvigorate their innovation. That’s that the Retail Lab will be. Giving people access to innovative new ideas. Bringing trends to live in the retail environment. Inspiring people to do things different and better. Creating a community in the sector. We’re really excited to be part of Retail Lab at this year’s Glee.

Find out more

Just like last year, the warm August evenings sparked a huge increase in volume sales of garden lighting, as reported in GTN Bestsellers'  latest Garden Products Chart.

While overall Top 50 volumes are down 20% year-on-year for the week, lighting matches last year and climbs 31%. This year sees a record 16 lighting lines in the Top 50 – more than 30% of sales.

• Smart Solar’s Eureka! Neo Light Bulb Lantern is the highest placed lighting line at No 5.
• Premier Decorations Coloured LED Pull Light & Bulb, a favourite for parasols, moves up 5 to No 7.
• Miracle-Gro plant food saw a sales surge to re-enter at No 1.

An outstanding variety of Lavendula angustifolia was been awarded a Silver Medal at the Plantarium trade show in Boskoop.

Lavandula ‘Superblue’, bred by Darwin Perennials and available to order from Ball Colegrave, is a first year-flowering variety, boasting high numbers of large and early rich blue flower spikes with full heads of colour.

‘Superblue’ flowers from June to September, has excellent hardiness and overwintering performance and grows to a garden height of 25-30cm.

It features in Ball Colegrave’s Lasting Beauty Perennials range as a Ball 40 liner (weeks 6 and 9) or Ball 84 plug (weeks 14-20). 

Despite an upturn in the second half of the month, growing media sales were down 5.3% on August 2016 levels according to the GTN Bestsellers Growing Media Top 50 chart index.

This last week was up by 16% year on year with 37 out of the Top 50 lines showing week-on-week sales increases.

• Early bulb sales drove Taylors Bulb Fibre, 10 litre, sales to re-entry at No 17, two places higher than the same week last year with a 22% volume jump.
• Bord na Mona Vital Earth Organic Garden Compost, 50 litres was the highest chart climber, moving up 26 places to No 21.
• Top soil performed well indicating high garden project activity. Westland Top Soil (Value Bag) 35 litres moved up four places to No 3 and Scotts Levington Organic Choice Top Soil, 25 litres, re-entered at No 33 with a 156% increase.

The newly-re-designed Plantarium trade fair at Boskoop in August attracted 9835 visitors over its four-day run, the organisers reported. Visitors on the traditional consumer day brought the final total to 15,765.

During their tour of the fair, board members were complimented on the new look but also heard criticism about the number of exhibitors and visitors. The board says feedback from participants will be “extremely important” during the follow-up process.

The theme of the 35th edition's show was ‘Stories’. The six Houses of Inspiration told stories centring on a theme, the eight Inspirational Gardens each told a story about a famous person, and the exhibitors told the stories of their companies and products. 

Plantarium 2018 will be held from 22 to 25 August in the Plantarium building at the International Trade Centre Boskoop-Hazerswoude. Further information can be found on the website  www.plantarium.nl.

Compared to the last four years, August was the best for grow-your-own activity. The GTN Bestsellers Veg 2 Gro Top 50 Chart shows a 12% increase on last year, to make it the highest sales volumes for the month since 2013.

Herbs were the big movers last week, with high volumes of Marjoram, Mint and Basil selling through.

• Farplants Marjoram, 9cm pot size, comes straight in at No 1.
• Farplants Mint ‘Tashkent’ is the highest re-entry at No 8.
• Quantil Christmas Potato ‘Sharpes Express’ is another new entry at No 20.

At this year’s Glee, Town & Country will unveil a range of new products from its ‘Captivating Colours’ collection (stand 18M10-N11).

With the new addition of purple, teal and pink, the collection aims to brighten up the dullest of days in the garden. One range to get the ‘Captivating Colours’ treatment is the Bamboo Glove, a choice for the environmentally conscious gardener. The natural bamboo fibres are luxuriously soft, naturally hypoallergenic and antibacterial, with a latex coating on the palms and fingers offering full dexterity and grip whilst protecting from thorns and brambles.

Other ‘Captivating Colours’ lines include the Ultimax Glove, a multi-feature heavy-duty glove designed to offer an extremely close fit, unequalled dexterity and exceptional durability. The palm is made from strong flexible synthetic leather and features textured palm pads for improved grip, added protection and extra durability. The back is stretch elastane for comfort and has a neoprene knuckle ‘shock absorber’ and reinforced fingertips.

Also on the stand will be Town & Country’s ever-popular Cloggies, lightweight, comfortable, slip-on shoes ideal for leaving by the backdoor. Available in the three signature colours as well as a patterned design, Cloggies are contoured to fit the foot.

Wellington boot designs will include the Bradgate, a short fit natural rubber boot with a cushioned insole and lining for comfort. The classic boot is now available in two new patterns in aubergine & cream and navy & pink.

Another boot now available in these eye-catching patterns is the Bosworth, a traditional length boot with a cushioned insole and lined for comfort.

The ‘Captivating Colour’ makeover also encompasses secateurs, kneepads and kneelers in teal.

As of August 2017, Town & Country is a division of E P Barrus, a British Company with more than 100 years trading experience. 

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 newsletter.

As the year goes on we give sales volume comparisons with 2015 as well as 2016 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 up-to-date gardening sales analysis that has already helped many UK garden centres increase their sales.  To subscribe call 01733 775700, e-mail karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk.

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

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

Highlights of the GTN Veg-2-Gro 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.

Work has resumed after a short break on a major restaurant building project at Groves Nurseries of Bridport.

Groundworks by local builders CG Fry are ahead of schedule ready for the construction of a state-of-the-art glasshouse, due to start in October. The opening is planned for Spring 2018.

Manager Charlie Groves, the sixth generation of CW Groves to run a business on the site, has been updating customers about the project on a video on the centre's facebook page.

Fine foods wholesaler Cotswold Fayre is encouraging retailers to consolidate orders and deliveries in the interests of sustainability.

Chief executive Paul Hargreaves, who set up the business 18 years ago from his cellar as a distribution hub for a few small producers in the Cotswolds, says he wants to stay true to his founding principles – to be an ethical and responsible distributor.

The company now employs 24 in the team, lists 3,000 products from 300 suppliers and has almost 2000 customers.

In 2015, it became a B Corporation – recognition for enterprises using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

Hargreaves says there is a growing need for consolidation in the speciality food sector as the number of brands continues to increase. “We constantly seek out ways to introduce new sustainability initiatives such as encouraging retailers to consolidate the number of deliveries. Not only does this save them time and money when ordering and sorting, but also reduces their carbon footprint by taking vehicles off the road.

 “Using fewer routes to market can have a massive impact financially, logistically and perhaps most importantly environmentally. To support this, we will always price-match the same products that the retailer may be buying from elsewhere.”

Three Trees Farm Shop and Café in Wiltshire has reaped the benefits of using Cotswold Fayre’s consolidation service since becoming a customer in 2012.

“When we first opened the shop we were a bit clueless and bought direct from a lot of producers,” said owner Beth McMurray, “but this meant we had to do a ridiculous amount of ordering and order a lot to meet the minimum order values. When we discovered Cotswold Fayre and saw that they listed a lot of the producers we were using, this eradicated the problem completely.

 “Cotswold Fayre always has a great range of products at a good price and makes an effort to find new suppliers, meaning its offering always has something fresh and new for my customers.” McMurray also applauds the company’s personal service.

The company’s involvement in overseas projects is further evidence of its ethical stance. Since 2010, it has worked with the Bala Children’s Centre orphanage in Kenya, on a number of agricultural projects, including building a farm, to help generate income to meet the children’s needs and give the centre a more sustainable future.

The distributor is keen to encourage other businesses to focus on sustainability, including its suppliers, customers and new start-ups entering the sector. This year, Cotswold Fayre is sponsoring the Sustainable Business category of Speciality Food’s New Producer Awards. Hargreaves is on the judging panel and will be helping to choose an overall winner at the Bread & Jam Festival on 6 October 2017.

 “There is a lot of work to do within the speciality food world in developing more sustainable business, and we want to support any producers developing within this area,” Hargreaves adds.

To find out more or to download Cotswold Fayre’s latest catalogue, visit the website.