Extension unveiled at Root One GC
Root One Garden Centre in Wallingford has unveiled extensions to its coffee shop and retail areas to improve its customer experience and increase the range of goods stocked at the site.
The family-owned centre was granted permission by South Oxfordshire District Council last year for an 8,255 sq ft extension to its plant area and its coffee shop, providing additional seating and kitchen space further to planning specialists Malcolm Scott Consultants submitting detailed proposals for the business.
Andrew Burton, of Malcolm Scott Consultants, said: “The Root One team brought us in after carrying out an assessment of their retail operations, keen to capitalise on the spike in visitors to the centre that was born during the Covid pandemic and continued to thrive.
“As an independent garden centre, the business wanted to position itself ahead of competitors by improving the layout of the site, providing a larger sales area to showcase an extended stock range, and increasing the amount of seating in its popular coffee shop to increase dwell time at the centre and establish itself as a destination. Our team prepared detailed plans to ensure the best use of space at the site, creating a customer journey through the centre, culminating with a well-spaced coffee shop to serve more customers in an appealing, spacious environment.
“We thoroughly enjoy working with clients on these projects, and seeing the plans come to fruition is always the highlight. The completed works look superb, and we’re confident Root One will reap the rewards, both in terms of footfall at the centre and on its bottom line,” he said.
Jeremy Brudenell, who established Root One Garden Centre in 2001, said: “We are delighted that the extension work has been completed ahead of schedule, in spite of the challenges that the great British weather has presented in the last few weeks. Our goal was to have the revamped centre ready in time for Easter in order to meet the key garden sales period, and we’re very happy with the response we’ve had from customers so far.
“With Root One having marked 20 years in business last year, we have been committed to helping the centre develop over that time, and the demand from customers over the past 18 months demonstrated a need to invest in growing it further.
“The newly extended retail area has provided us with the chance to expand our garden leisure range, and we’ve almost doubled the size of out popular plant area to give customers a wider choice for their gardens. We’re hopeful that the increase choice, teamed with the extended coffee shop, will attract new customers to the centre and encourage them to stay longer, exploring the offering and enjoying the wares in the café,” he added.
Root One has also created 33 new parking spaces at the site, along with a dry storage area for goods awaiting collection.