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. 

Clothing and food are big sellers during July

CLOTHING and food halls/farm shops were the big sellers during July (2015) according to our Barometer of Trade (BoT) results.

An increase of 16.96% compared to last year (2014) was seen in clothing while sales in food halls/farm shops rose 13.97%.

It’s great to see non-traditional categories such as clothing and food halls/farm shops doing well during July. Joining the two categories in the top spot was houseplants, which saw a rise of 13.93% compared to 2014.

Sales in outdoor plants up 9.09%, which is very positive considering the ever changing British weather we had through the month. Catering sales were up 10.38% and gifts up 11.14% so it was a good month for most categories.

Sally Cornelissen, Director at Burleydam Garden Centre in Wirral, which recently received the award for Best Garden Centre in the North West at the GCA’s annual inspections, said: “This July has been exceptionally good. We were concerned that the poorer weather compared with 2014 would be a challenge but strong performances from hardy stock, garden sundries and furniture sales coupled with the expected increase in catering turnover has delivered pleasing results.

“There is a definite rise in consumer confidence as illustrated by increased interest in high ticket items. We hope that this confidence will ride out hints of a rise in inflation in the light of the increase in minimum wage in October.”

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.

Lauren Cocks, Marketing Manager at Coletta & Tyson Nurseries and Garden Centre in East Yorkshire, said: “We are seeing strong growth within our houseplant department, we have always struggled with strong competition from supermarket prices but it seems the tables are turning and customers are turning to garden centres to add colour and texture to their homes as well as their gardens.

“Catering is so important to our garden centre, people come just to visit our café now and it has meant we are no longer a garden centre with a café. To many we are a catering outlet in our own right. This means we have to keep improving our offering and keep it interesting for new and old customers alike.”

Our members see standards and profitability improve

We recently revealed there were record numbers of members receiving highly commended awards and awards of merit after our annual inspections and these have helped drive standards and profitability.

Sixty-three garden centres received a highly commended title and 150 received awards of merit.

We are absolutely thrilled to see a record number of our members receiving the ‘Highly Commended’ award as a result of their excellent performance in our annual inspections.

Our members tell us how beneficial the annual inspections are for them. As they don’t know when the inspections will be held it means they are always ‘on their toes’ in order to make sure everything is running to the highest level at all times. This ensures that customer service and retail standards are always of a high quality throughout the important spring trading period.

If garden centres are scoring 75% or above, as well as increased standards, members will also see increased turnover and profitability, which is a real benefit of being part of the GCA.

They can also benefit by using the awards for marketing their centres - in advertising, publicity, social media and on their websites - and this helps generate greater awareness and additional footfall.

In order to receive an award of merit a garden centre must reach 80% or above in any given category in the inspections.

It is great to see more of our members receiving these awards and this is a clear indication that GCA membership is helping centres to improve year-on-year. Being an award-winning garden centre offers assurance to existing customers and helps to attract new customers too.

Capel Manor student Sian receives GCA Trust award

Our Trust recently (July, 2015) handed out its annual award for Exceptional Plant Knowledge.

This year’s recipient was Capel Manor College student Sian Davis who received her award from Carol Paris, Chief Executive of the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), on our behalf at the college’s award ceremony event.

Sue Allen, our Trust Chairman said: “We were delighted to give our annual award to Sian and would also like to thank Carol for being there to present the certificate and prize of £100 on our behalf. 

“This is one of several annual awards made by our Trust to students at our leading horticulture colleges. In addition the Trust also supports students of horticulture by making grants on an annual basis to help with course fees and other costs. 

“To add to this, this year also sees the launch of our new initiative to encourage young or potential management team members within garden centres to visit centres in Europe for up to two weeks. Information about this scheme, which is called the Dick Allen Travel Award, and the other grants available through the Trust can be found on our website www.gca.org.uk.”

Sian has just completed her course at Capel Manor College.

She said: “I was delighted to have won this award for plant identification.

“I would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to all at the GCA Trust for sponsoring this award. As an adult learner returning to studying, it was really great to receive an award in recognition of all the hard work I have put in. I am now really looking forward to starting my career in horticulture.”

Ruxley Rose garden centre finalists announced

We have announced today (July 27, 2015) the names of the finalist garden centres in our re-vamped Ruxley Rose competition.

Instead of asking for entries this year, the garden centres with the top scores in the spring bedding and hardy nursery stock categories from our spring inspections have now been put through for autumn judging.

Nationally the top 10 centres in both the Garden Centre and Destination Garden Centre categories, 20 in all, will be revisited in September. 

Here are our N. East and N. West regional winners

Our North East and North West regional members picked up awards during a presentation evening yesterday (Friday, July 24) at Bents Garden & Home.

In the North East Cowell’s Garden Centre was named Best Garden Centre and Langlands Garden Centre – Shiptonthorpe picked up Best Destination Garden Centre. Burleydam Garden Centre scooped Best Garden Centre and Barton Grange received Best Destination Garden Centre in the North West.

We have had a week packed full of regional awards meetings and the North East/North West presentation evening was a great way to top it all off.