As I write this, I am still recovering from the euphoria of attending our recent Garden Centre Association (GCA) annual conference, held this year at the DeVere Hotel, Wokefield Park near Reading.
Will Blake, our Chairman from St Peters Garden Centre, did a wonderful job in organising a fast paced, informative and, of course, thought provoking agenda full of lots of great ideas and action points for our members to take back to their businesses.
And of course, there were lots of networking opportunities and fun to be had as well. The fancy dress Associates’ Dinner on Monday night was incredible, as always ,with the theme being the London Underground.
The thought, leftfield ideas and work that goes into the costumes never ceases to amaze me. Our winners on the night were The Solar Centre, dressed as rats, and The Gardens Group who were the Circle Line, and came in a circle! By far the most important award to win during the course of the two days!
Our team of four independent inspectors, spend three months every spring visiting every one of our garden centre members. The individual centres can then use the resulting inspection form, and feedback session, to see what things they have done well and what areas they could improve upon.
All very useful if you want to drive up the retail standards and we know from feedback that these better standards do result in more business. Clearly our customers can see this. From these scores we can then see who the best in each category has been, in each geographical area, and these awards are presented in July. However, the overall, countrywide winners are not announced until our conference, which gives the Monday of the event a very dramatic feel.
The inspectors firstly present their findings in a rapid flow of about 200 pictures, covering all sections of the inspection form and highlighting the best practice they have observed on their visits.
These really do showcase the incredible work going on in garden centres across the land and demonstrate how far we are ahead of the high street in most cases nowadays. This is a great opportunity for those present to be able to take notes on this best practice and replicate it in their own centres if they wish.
It’s a wonderful way to see the best of our 215 garden centre members in an hour and a half.
Congratulations to all our winners but especially Barton Grange, Fron Goch and Millbrook Staplehurst for winning the overall Garden Centre of the year awards in their respective categories.
It was very good to see that the changes in the turnover bands that we use to segregate the membership also worked well in giving a number of centres a chance to win, by spreading out the top performers.
The Indoor Lifestyle Award – Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer – sponsored by Woodmansterne
Winners
- The Indoor Lifestyle Award – Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Bents Garden and Home
- The Indoor Lifestyle Award – Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer (Garden Centre Category) –Squires Garden Centre, Woking and Squires Garden Centre, Wokingham =
- The Indoor Lifestyle Award – Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer (Local Garden Centre Category) – Rutland Nursery
Second & third place winners
Destination Garden Centre Category
- Garsons Garden Centre, Esher
- Ruxley Manor Garden Centre
Garden Centre Category
- Garsons Garden Centre, Titchfield
- Fron Goch Garden Centre and Ransoms Garden Centre =
Local Garden Centre Category
- Knights Plant Centre, Betchworth and Raglan Garden Centre =
- Squires Garden Centre, Reigate and Millbrook Garden Company, Staplehurst =
Mention must also go to a new member Rutland Nursery who managed to win not one, but two awards, very well done. I hope it encourages some more high performing centres to join us.
During the conference, we said farewell to Gordon Emslie, who has been an Inspector for eight years and welcomed Peter Walker as his replacement. I’m sure many of you will know Peter, as he has been in the industry for a long time.
We thanked Gordon for his excellent contributions and are very pleased that he will continue to host the Rising Stars programme along with Gina Lewis, Social & Content Marketing Manager from Westland Horticulture, the sponsors.
