Scotland and N.Ireland area winners revealed

We revealed our Scottish and Northern Irish regional winners during a presentation last night at Glendoick Gardens Ltd Nursery & Gardens in Glencarse, Perth.

Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre was awarded Best Garden Centre (GC) and Raemoir Garden Centre won Best Destination Garden Centre (DGC) in Scotland. Creative Gardens Donaghadee scooped Best Garden Centre in Northern Ireland.

The Scotland and Northern Ireland area awards evening is always a popular event and this year proved to be no exception. It was a great opportunity to visit one of our newer members, Glendoick, and we thank them for hosting the occasion. There were some fantastic examples of best practice and innovation shown in the presentation and there were some very worthy winners.

The award for Best Customer Service went to Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre in Scotland and Creative Gardens Donaghadee in Northern Ireland while the award for Most Improved Centre in Scotland went to Klondyke Garden Centre – Mayfield and Bushmills Garden centre in Northern Ireland.

The awards are decided by the results of the annual inspections, which take place at all our member garden centres. Garden centres have no advance warning about when their inspection will take place and they do not have the option to turn away the inspector.

The Best Garden Centre and Best Destination Garden Centre awards went to the members that scored the highest overall mark in the area in their annual inspections.

The top scoring centres overall, nationally, in both the Destination Garden Centre and Garden Centre categories will be re-inspected before the titles of Garden Centre of the Year and Destination Garden Centre of the Year are announced at our annual conference taking place in January 2016.

The full results for the Scotland and Northern Ireland GCA area awards are as follows for the GC and DGC categories:

Scotland:

Best Garden Centre: Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre (GC) and Raemoir Garden Centre (DGC)

Best Customer Service: Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre

Best Environment and Community: Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre

Best Creativity and Innovation: Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre

Most Improved: Klondyke Garden Centre – Mayfield

Best Restaurant: Glendoick Garden Centre (GC) and Raemoir Garden Centre (DGC)

Garden Products Retailer: Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre (GC) and Raemoir Garden Centre (DGC)

Best Indoor Lifestyle: Gouldings Garden Centre (GC) and Raemoir Garden Centre (DGC)

Best Outdoor Living: Gouldings Garden Centre (GC) and Raemoir Garden Centre (DGC)

Northern Ireland:

Best Garden Centre: Creative Gardens Donaghadee

Best Customer Service: Creative Gardens Donaghadee

Best Environment and Community: Creative Gardens Donaghadee

Best Creativity and Innovation: Creative Gardens Donaghadee

Most Improved: Bushmills Garden Centre

Best Restaurant: Creative Gardens Donaghadee

Garden Products Retailer: Creative Gardens Donaghadee

Best Indoor Lifestyle: Bushmills Garden Centre

Best Outdoor Living: Creative Gardens Donaghadee.

Shoppers make the most of the outdoors during August

Furniture and barbecues and outdoor plants were the big sellers during August (2015) according to our Barometer of Trade (BoT) results.

The results showed an increase of 30.62% in furniture and barbecue sales compared to the same month in 2014 with a Year to Date (YTD) change of 9.83% while sales in outdoor plants were 18.2% up with a YTD of 8.47%.

During August our member’s customers were out in force and making the most of any hints of good weather with the purchasing of furniture and barbecues. It’s great to see sales in outdoor plants were on the up too as people spent time in their gardens before the autumn.

For the month of August our overall garden centre performance was up by 12.65% compared to the same month last year. The YTD change was 6.8%.

Food Hall/Farm Shop sales were up 12.25% compared to August last year with a YTD change of 7.4%.

Mark Gilbert, Sales Director at Paradise Park in East Sussex, said: “The month of August was once again a month of very varied weather conditions that ultimately favoured the traditional gardener who could enjoy good soil conditions for plenty of extra planting. This was reflected in a 20% growth of outdoor plants sales compared to last year.

“Furniture and BBQ sales showed a good growth over August 2014 in spite of the varied weather conditions previously mentioned. Factors for this included a well-trained and informative sales team that converted a lower footfall for August 2015 into a higher sales figure than 2014, by targeting the right customers. Range also stayed solid and available through the month, helping to beat local competition that had sold off certain summer lines early and not re-stocked.”

Other categories which saw good sales were clothing at 7.74% and catering at 10.79% with YTD changes of 11.33% and 8.69%.

Houseplants sales were up 12.25% with a YTD of 9.27%.

Our BoT results are the only official trading figures to be released.

The reports are compiled using actual sales figures and provide an up-to-date trading position statement. They are made available mid-month following the end of the prior month after all member garden centres have submitted their results.

The BoT reports allow members to compare their trading positions with other centres.