Christmas displays that sparkle

Here are the regional winners of our annual Christmas display competition 2013.

Twelve garden centres have been named as having the best Christmas displays in their region. The two overall winners will be announced at our annual conference in January.

Expert in multi-channel retailing at our conference

AN EXPERT in multi-channel retailing will be presenting at our annual conference in January (2014) to help us all get behind the digital age.

David Oliver, a partner in PwC’s Retail Consulting team, will be focusing on giving attendees advice on how they can embrace digital transformation by integrating e-commerce with store channels.

More sponsors for our annual GCA conference

BORD na Móna and Hozelock have signed up as secondary sponsors for our annual conference taking place in January next year (2014).

The two companies join Davidson Richards and Westland Horticulture, which are the headline sponsors for the event.

Our Chief Executive, Iain Wylie, said: “It’s wonderful having such well-known brands and names associated with our conference, which is fast becoming the best event of the gardening year when it comes to getting together with likeminded industry-folk.

We have a permanent Chief Exec

Iain Wylie, who until recently was our interim Chief Executive, has been confirmed in the position of Chief Executive.

Our Chairman, Peter Burks said: “We’re delighted Iain was available to continue in the role and are looking forward to the future. He has a great deal of expertise and knowledge and is very experienced in the ways of the GCA.”

Iain took the post of interim Chief Executive in October last year and has been helping to run the GCA during the past 12 months.

Peter added: “He’s done a great job in the holding role and there are lots of new projects to work on such as GROW. It promises to be an exciting coming year for the GCA.”

Top economist shares thoughts on outlook for garden centres

HSBC’S Head of Economics will be speaking at our annual conference in January (2014) about the outlook for garden centres and their suppliers.

Mark Berrisford-Smith, who is Head of Economics for HSBC’s commercial banking business in the UK, will be sharing his thoughts with attendees on Tuesday, January 28.

We dished up a cheerful October

DINERS and early Christmas shoppers turned to our member garden centres for their refreshments and festive purchases in October (2013) with sales in both categories up on the same month last year.

According to our (GCA) Barometer of Trade (BoT) catering sales were up by 7.35%, Christmas sales by 7.11% and gift purchases by 6.49% as compared to October 2012.

Our Chairman, Peter Burks, explained: “Although the figures are not stunning they are going in the right direction during what has been a tough year for all of us in retail. Catering is still performing well and anyone who doesn’t have a professional café or restaurant ought to be thinking about investing in one.

“Our customers may still need to feel more confident about the economy to spend more in other areas of the garden centre but they are definitely happy to eat out and to meet friends and family for a tea or coffee and cake in our restaurants.

“Christmas seems to have come early at our member garden centres too, which is very positive. We’re heartened to see the hard work of members, who have spent weeks creating wonderful, cheerful displays and special Christmas events, pay off this month.”

Sign up for Beach, Bingo and Boogie at our conference

We’re looking for people to sign up for our Beach, Bingo and Boogie event, which will take place on Sunday, January 26 at our annual conference.

To tie in with our seaside location for the conference, this year’s Greenfingers Challenge Cup will have a beach theme and will see a team of garden centre staff go head-to-head with a team of suppliers.

Iain Wylie, our interim Chief Executive, said: “The competition will include beach games, such as volleyball and cricket, followed by traditional seaside fish and chips and an evening of bingo. We’ll round off the night with a boogie.