Farm shops and houseplant sales dominated at garden centres this May (2021) according to our recent Barometer of Trade (BoT) report. As centres in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland reopened mid-May in 2020, this report used figures from 2019 and reveals farm shop sales were up 90.24% in May 2021. May has always been…
We are fully supportive of the need to remove peat from amateur horticulture (May 2021). We support the Growing Media Taskforce statement and will be working alongside our colleagues in its aims. There is a need to assist gardeners in making the transition from peat-based growing media and we believe this is possible by 2025, subject to the…
The team at Woodlodge Products is celebrating this week after being presented with our 2020 Associate of the Year Award Members were asked to vote for the supplier, a GCA Associate member, which had done the most for their business and the industry through support, service and innovation last year. Woodlodge Products’ Director, Michael Wooldridge…
This month (April 2021) Squire’s Garden Centre Reigate has been presented with our Garden Retail Online Workshops (GROW) award for completing the most GROW training modules last year (2020). The award was first introduced in 2015 to encourage our members to utilise the programme by rewarding an individual garden centre whose employees complete, on average,…
Our Barometer of Trade (BoT) report for February has revealed furniture and barbecue sales at garden centres saw a 79.17% year to date increase during the month (2021). Although Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish centres were closed in February, as essential retailers, English centres remained open and recorded positive sales in seven of the 13…
As part of our pledge to continue working on environmental challenges this year (2021), we have teamed up with Planet Mark to help evolve our inspection process. We are enhancing the process, with initial changes in 2021, and will work with our inspectors and Planet Mark to embed environmental factors within the whole process for future…
The food hall and farm shops category within garden centres saw positive sales during January (2021) according to our Barometer of Trade (BoT) report. Garden centres in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland remained closed during the month, which affected the overall picture greatly, however centres in England were permitted to remain open as essential retailers.…
The first regional meetings of 2021 for our members were held online and were hailed a great success by attendees recently. Garden centre staff from South Thames, Midlands and Wales & West, North Thames, North West and North East got together virtually to discuss and air their views with their peers. Although slightly different from…
Another fantastic booking for our 2020 conference was Former BBC Chief News Correspondent Kate Adie CBE. As the BBC’s Chief News Correspondent, Kate covered the Gulf War, the demise of the Soviet Union, the protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and NATO’s campaign in Kosovo. She began her career as a technician in radio before being…
As we look back on our 2020 conference, we’re remembering the wise words we heard from environmentalist, Trewin Restorick. Trewin is the founding CEO of Hubbub, a charity which makes environmental issues fun. It works to bring issues of climate change, carbon footprints and global warming into the public eye in a fun and light-hearted…