April ‘resounding success’ for members with seeds & bulbs leading growth Our Barometer of Trade (BoT) out today shows April was a ‘resounding success’ for garden centre members – despite a slight year-on-year dip in sales (May 15, 2026). Standout performer The standout performer for the month was seeds & bulbs, which topped the category…
HSBC’s former Head of Economics will be helping delegates at our annual conference understand the resurgence of inflation and the challenges that it continues to bring (January 28 until 31, 2024). Mark Berrisford-Smith, who worked for the bank’s Commercial Banking division in the UK until June this year, will be sharing his experience and expertise…
If you were unable to attend our annual conference this year, then some of our Inspectors have very kindly shared their presentations here, so you can catch up and still take some of their advice and insights to use in the everyday running of your garden centre. Inspector Colin Farquhar talked to our attendees about…
We are expanding our team of inspectors after seeing a record number of new members join us this year. The new inspector will visit member garden centres in one or two of the area groups around the country. We have seen a record-breaking 13 new members join us this year and we are processing further…
Our GCA Trust recently (April, 2019) selected Emma Lamb from Barton Grange Garden Centre and Sam Clark from Cowell’s Garden Centre to attend this year’s International Garden Centre Association (IGCA) Congress. The two candidates will receive a sponsored place at the IGCA Congress in September as part of the Dick Allen Scholarship Award Scheme. Sue…
The positive start to 2019 continued into February (2019) as garden centres across the country saw outdoor plant sales soar according to our Barometer of Trade (BoT) report. Sales in outdoor plants were up 61.1% compared to the same month the previous year (2018). This year’s sales figures just prove what a difference the weather…
Our annual conference at Luton Hoo Hotel this week (January 20 – 23, 2019) was a record-breaking success. The conference was attended by more than 300 delegates, the most ever, and feedback from attendees has been extremely positive. We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who joined…