With todays surprise news about 3 Centres in the Rosebourne group sold to Hilliers and the 3 van Hage centres sold to Blue Diamond, the cycle of consolidation continues. Were getting to a point that Grocery and DIY was in the late 60s and early 70s, when smaler chains and great independents were swallowed up

Correct Orlando it is worrying in the northwest there are very few independent garden centres left where as Strikes and Blue diamond have being buying up plenty. This does leave the consumer with very little choice. Worrying times ahead for retail.

Gerry makes a point that there are regional groups of "3 or 4 retailers" That's great, up to a point, but if they sell all those sites to a chain, the loss to the sector is proportionately more than the loss of 4 independents. A medium sized group is more attractive to a chain, in giving immediate access to an established customer base.

Retail is constantly evolving in every sector and has been for Centuries . Groups unless they are run rather like JLP ( and even they are suffering) are sluggish ( slow to change) , they are full of (top heavy) with Staff who have been inadequately trained for their role on the floor as Retailers . Independents are on the whole far more Specialist ( they spend a bit on training) and they have the advantage to change things very quickly when they need to be . They can promote instore and by using Social Media within minutes to take advantage of seasonal changes ( weather ) and the economy locally . A Group takes months sonetimes to make changes for the better . Own Branding is just a method used by Retailers to look different and gain an advantage on competition . Only the very strongest of Brands (Compost , Barbecues , Garden Furniture) won‘t play ball with own branding ( and why should they , their advertising budgets are enormous ) . For just about everything else own branding is an option , if it makes sense and gives an Independent a march on their competitors . If I was an Independent , I‘d even try to own brand my Houseplants ( labelling and signage) and my Plant Area . The Butcher , Baker and Candlestick Maker have been pointed to as victims of the Groups . Yes there were plenty that went , but only because they didn‘t evolve their businesses . Artisan Bakers , Specialist Butchers , Greengrocers ( Box Vegetables to your door) are in abundance once again , as are Fishmongers again delivered to your door. We will see now how all these Independent Retailers shoulder the Economic Tsunsmi thats coming the UK‘s way , remember they are more agile than the Groups . A lot of Garden Centres and Nurseries are on the market at present because their owners want to retire , not because their businesses are suffering financially . For most of their offspring Retail ( 7 day a week) is not that attractive , after all their parents business afforded them a great Education and they don‘t see how Retail could deliver the goods . ( for them personally)

It`s been this way for years for most of the smaller garden ornament boys, in the 60`s i would go out with dad `selling`, you would go out on a delivery to someone but on the way call into Nurseries and show the boss the stock on the car or van and hopefully you would get an order for next time, you would never close call and come home with cash or a cheque. over time the owners retired, managers came in and you would have to make an appointment to see a buyer, to small firms this was just an obstacle, you just couldn`t be bothered with it, Nowadays some of my friends have had to integrate bar coding, pre price, merchandise, etc etc, it`s taken the cream out of any decent profit. We`ve been lucky in that we only retail now, it`s really hard out for the small bloke and his missus making a few bits in the garden shed just starting out.

Correct Orlando it is worrying in the northwest there are very few independent garden centres left where as Strikes and Blue diamond have being buying up plenty. This does leave the consumer with very little choice. Worrying times ahead for retail

Todays Gardenforum brings adverts for 3 garden businesses about to close or be sold. Looks to me that we're going down the route of grocery and other industries, with a selection of larger turnover set-ups and the gradual shutdown of "Family Businesses". This must be a concern for wholesalers, suppliers and trade associations who rely on a range of retailers for their business?

Things are much better than when Wyevale was around. There is now a healthy crop of regional groups of 3 or 4 garden centres. None of the groups are dominant, Dobbies is treading water and Blue Diamond still has only 39 garden centres, hardly market domination. So the future is looking good for suppliers who innovate.

The future I feel is Bleak for a lot of suppliers because of more garden centre groups buying up independents just look at Blue Diamond own brand compost own Brand garden furniture and BBQs. This will just spread to other sectors within the centres. Soon the choice will be so limited thus driving people to find alternatives probably from the internet?