Retail guru Mary Portas to speak at our 2026 GCA Conference Businesswoman, broadcaster, author and activist Mary Portas OBE will be speaking about retail at our annual conference at Carden Park Chester on Monday, January 26. Mary made her name creating change and in 2024 she was awarded an OBE for her services to business,…
Please register for our next GCA webinar hosted by Peter Burks ‘Making more from what you already have’, which will provide 5 key takeaways that all businesses could use immediately. There will be a presentation by Andrew Burton from Pleydell Smithyman. We will also hear from Corby and Fellas, who will give insights into…
BoT reveals sales in July ‘bounced back’ after June’s hot weather Our July 2025 Barometer of Trade (BoT) is out today (August 20) and it shows ‘a good mid-summer performance’. Member garden centres reported that eight of the 13 categories recorded did well, when compared to 2024, with furniture and BBQs, up at +16.72%, crowned…
We’ve released our 97th new GROW course – it’s on herbaceous plants Our members and Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) ones can now access our latest Garden Retail Online Workshops (GROW) course and this time it’s designed to help plant area teams (August 2025). The Herbaceous Plants course is the 97th workshop to be added to…
Garden Centre Secrets With The Evergreen Agency GCA Member, The Evergreen Agency, recently invited Peter Burks, Chief Executive of the Garden Centre Association, onto their podcast to discuss how garden centres can maximise their marketing efforts by focusing online. You can watch the full episode on their website, on YouTube or listen back on Spotify…
We’ve crowned our summer 2025 Mids, Wales & West winners Staff at member garden centres across our Midlands, Wales & West region are celebrating after scooping awards during a presentation yesterday afternoon and evening at Pugh’s Wenvoe (Thursday, July 24, 2025). Garden Centre of the Year winners were Planters Garden Centre, Tamworth in the Destination…
June’s BoT figures show good year-to-date sales Our June 2025 Barometer of Trade (BoT) out today (July 23) shows good year-to-date sales despite the hot weather’s effect on gardening activity during the month. Five of the 13 categories listed performed well when compared to 2024 with member garden centres citing catering, up at +4.17%, as…
Our East region winners revealed Garden centre staff throughout our East region are celebrating today after picking up awards at a presentation at British Garden Centres, Northampton yesterday afternoon and evening (Thursday, July 17, 2025). The Garden Centre of the Year winners were Perrywood Tiptree in the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category, Poplars in the Garden…
Our North region summer 2025 award winners Our North region members met yesterday afternoon and evening at Moss & Moor at Ilkley in Yorkshire for their Area Award presentations (Wednesday, July 16, 2025). Destination Garden Centre of the Year, (DGC) was presented to Barton Grange, the Garden Centre (GC) award went to Fron Goch Garden…
