Alyson takes on inspector’s role

Alyson Haywood is our new inspector.

Her most recent role was as Head of Horticultural Quality Control for Wyevale Garden Centres. Prior to that she was Managing Director of Moreton Park Garden Centre in Shropshire.

Iain Wylie, our GCA Chief Executive, said: “I am delighted Alyson has accepted the appointment and that she’ll be working with the GCA again. She has spent all of her working life in the industry and a significant number of those years working at senior level in garden centres.

“She has a very impressive CV and is an experienced and passionate horticulturalist with a breadth of experience in retail, marketing, business development and turnaround, and is now a Business Improvement and Development Consultant and horticultural specialist.

“Alyson started her garden centre career at the Grosvenor Garden Centre in 1987, and shortly afterwards moved to the newly opened Notcutts Garden Centre in Solihull in 1988 as Horticultural Advisor/Garden Designer.

“After this Alyson went to Wyevale Garden Centres as Horticultural Manager at Northampton Wyevale Garden Centre.

“While on maternity leave, she gained a post graduate teaching certificate that then led to five years as a part-time Lecturer in Horticulture at Rodbaston College Staffordshire and Telford College of Arts.”

But it was not long before she was back working in garden centres.

Alyson explained: “I missed garden centres so much I went back to the newly opened Wyevale Garden Centre in Telford and went on to become a Regional Manager with Wyevale Garden Centres.

“I was also a Training, Development and Recruitment Manager for Wyevale and was responsible for determining the training, development and recruitment strategies to ensure that the company met its demands. I implemented a training plan for 120 stores and also devised and implemented a competency-based recruitment and selection process for all levels of management, and personally delivered specialist training to other corporate employees.”

Alyson was also a General Operations Manager at Wyevale Garden Centres and was responsible for six Regional Managers who jointly controlled a turnover of approximately £110 million.

Her other roles have included: General Manager at Woodlands Nurseries, General Manager at Bridgemere Garden World and Head of Nurseries and Regional Manager with The Garden Centre Group.

In her spare time Alyson enjoys walking and trekking in remote and challenging areas.

Gardeners improved their outdoor spaces in November

Gardeners across the country made use of the milder weather during November (2015) and worked on improving their outdoor spaces according to our BoT results.

Sales in hard landscaping were up 7.86% but customers were also eating well with Food Hall and Farm Shop sales up 20.07% up compared to the same month last year (2014).

As a country we have had much milder weather than we’re used to for November so it seems people made good use of it and continued to use their outdoor spaces.

Furniture and barbecue sales were also positive through the month at 13.24% up with a Year to Date (YTD) change of 9.38%. Other good performers during the month were clothing at 15.14% with a YTD of 14.2% and catering at 8.39% up with a YTD of 9.27%.

For the month of November the overall garden centre performance was up by 3.93% with a Year to Date change of 6.22%.

Christmas sales rose steadily at 4.23% up with a YTD of 7.33%, but they are expected to be much higher in December. Sales in gifts were 0.67% up with a YTD of 3.04%.

As expected at this time of year, sales in houseplants were just -0.76% up but with a YTD of 7.11% there is some potential for a healthy increase in the busy December sales period. Outdoor plants were -5.85% and seeds and bulbs -2.06%.

Richard Pennell, Managing Director of Pennells Garden Centre in Lincoln, said: “Following recent development of the centre at Lincoln we have seen strong growth in sales of outdoor plants from our new canopy area and indoors from our new food hall. Our restaurant too has seen strong growth. Customers are looking for a wide range of experiences when they visit a modern garden centre.”

Our BoT 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.

Matthew Bent, Managing Director at Bents Garden and Home, said: “The end of 2015 is proving a busy time for Bents with sales in December already looking good and following what has been a strong November across the industry. Our results support the GCA figures with our clothing and Food Hall departments both significantly up on last year. Both departments are now much bigger and offer a much wider variety of products following our recent expansion and we are happy the results reflect the work that has been put in.

“Catering is also up in line with the industry figures, demonstrating that our more long term and established areas of the business continue to perform very well.” 

National GCA festive display winners

Barton Grange and Castle Gardens are the ‘dazzling’ national winners of our 2015 annual Christmas competition.

The garden centres were judged to have the best festive displays in the country by us and will receive their awards at our golden jubilee conference in January.

We announced the regional winners of our Christmas display competition at the end of November and were very impressed with the standard of entries this year.

Following this, the area winners were all judged for a second time and these two national winners were selected at the end of last week as the duo with the most dazzling displays.

We’d like to heartily congratulate Barton Grange in Lancashire, who won in the Destination Garden Centre category, and Castle Gardens in Dorset who scooped the top prize in the Garden Centre section of the awards.

The garden centres were judged on the innovation, inspiration and excitement created from the way their Christmas products are displayed. The range of products available, accessibility, how easy it is for customers to find and select products and ‘wow factor’ were also taken into consideration in an assessment of the overall commercial proposition.

Andy Campbell, our inspector and judge of the national Christmas displays competition, said: “I last carried out the national judging of the Christmas competition several years ago and since then the creativity and commerciality of the regional finalists has just got stronger and stronger.

“I have just visited 15 garden centres over eight days and I am hugely impressed by the professionalism of their Christmas merchandising and displays. It is clear to me that garden centres lead the way in this field.”

The runners up in the Destination Garden Centre category were Bents in Cheshire and Whitehall, Lacock in Wiltshire. In the Garden Centre category, the runners up were Burleydam Garden Centre in Cheshire and Pennells Lincoln.

Our annual conference will take place at The Grand Hotel in Brighton from January 24 until 27, 2016.

Hal Cruttenden to compere our conference dinner

Radio and TV comedian, writer and actor Hal Cruttenden will be compering our awards dinner at our conference next month (January 26, 2016).

The talented entertainer will host our annual event on Tuesday, January 26 at The Grand Hotel in Brighton.

Hal is one of the top comedians working in the UK today, as well as being a highly accomplished writer and actor.

During the last year he’s made his second appearance on ‘The Royal Variety Performance’, hosted ‘Live at the Apollo’ and was the guest comic in the final of ‘The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice’.

‘He’s also appeared on ‘Would I Lie To You?’, ‘Have I Got News For You’, ‘Sunday Night at the Palladium’, ‘Mock The Week’, ‘Pointless Celebrities’, ‘Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled’ and wrote and performed in his own Radio 4 sitcom called ‘Hal’.

The talented comedian has been nominated for the prestigious Perrier and The Chortle Awards and his recent tour – Tough Luvvie – saw him perform 170 dates.

Having originally trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, his acting career has included roles on TV including ‘Shackleton’, ‘Eastenders’, ‘Out of the Blue’, ‘Touching Evil’ and ‘Bramwell’.

He has also been in the movies ‘The Madness of King George’ and ‘Mrs Dalloway’. In the theatre he has appeared in ‘Making News at the Edinburgh Festival’ and ‘Orwell A Celebration’ at Trafalgar Studios London and the Edinburgh Festival.

We’re really looking forward to Hal’s appearance and it’s not too late to book if you are hoping to attend, please visit the members’ section of our website via www.gca.org.uk to book your place.

With a super venue, a great line-up of speakers and plenty of opportunities to catch up with old friends from the industry, this year’s conference is set to be a fantastic occasion, especially as its our golden jubilee in 2016.

To book, please visit the members’ section of our website via www.gca.org.uk. Sponsorship slots have filled up well too but there are still one or two left so if companies are interested in this, please give us a call on 0118 930 8918.

Our annual conference will be held at The Grand Hotel in Brighton from January 24 until 27, 2016. More than 300 delegates are expected to attend the event.