Why are gardening brands ignoring QVC?

Richard Jackson, the gardening guru on QVC, asked why many garden brands ignore QVC when so many famous brands in other sectors sell through it. Read more - members only

Richard Jackson

‘Europe is not a long term priority for us’ says Scotts chairman

Scotts-Miracle Gro continues to look at ways to exit Europe and hopes of a final answer in the near future. UK sales were hit by the closure of Solus. Read more - members only

Wyevale Folkestone is to close

Radnor Estates that own Folkestone garden centre have served notice on Wyevale having won planning consent to use the site for residential use. Read more - members only

Bunnings making good progress with Homebase

Gillam says the new pricing, marketing and operational strategies within Homebase is achieving results in line with plans.  Read more - members only

John Gillam

Rosebourne opens its first garden centre

Rosebourne has started trading at Weyhill, near Andover. Its first garden centre has opened its doors prior to its official opening this Saturday, the 22nd October 2016.   Read more - members only

Sainsbury’s is to put Argos in every store

Sainsbury’s will introduce Argos digital concessions to more than 20 additional stores by Christmas, bringing the total number to over 30. Read more - members only

Smart Garden to buy Chapelwood from Scotts

Paris Natar says at last he has found the right opportunity as Smart Garden agrees terms to buy the Chapelwood wild bird care business from Scotts. Read more - members only

Crooklands of Dalton reopens on Oct 8th

Having been closed for the whole of September, Crooklands of Dalton, plans to re-open on October 8th, following a £1m redevelopment. Read more - members only

Dobbies CX outlines the plans for Dobbies

John Cleland, chief executive of Dobbies since July, told an invited audience of chief executives at Glee that Dobbies’ new owners were long term cash investors. Read more - members only

John Cleland

SBM plans to be world number 2 after acquisition of Bayer Garden

Jean-Paul and Alexandre Simmler, owners of SBM, have outlined their plans for Bayer Garden when they close the deal in October to take it out of Bayer. Read more - members only

Alexandre Simmler

Scotts are in advanced discussions to sell ChapelWood

Scotts Miracle-Gro has announced that the company is to sell the ChapelWood bird seed brand. Read more - members only

New Ideas at SPOGA gafa

New Ideas on show at SPOGA gafa include indoor gardening, the first solar powered sun lounger and a powered patio brush system to replace sprayers. Read more - members only

Grange is to stop UK manufacture

Grange is to announce next week that it will close all production facilities at Telford. Read more - members only

Highgrove to offer a new distribution service for garden centres

Highgrove is to offer garden suppliers and retailers a new distribution service based on a model that works in the grocery market.  Read more - members only

Wesfarmers’ CEO is really excited about Homebase

As sales lift 7.5% Wesfarmers, CEO, Richard Goyder says a pilot will start early in 2017 to rebrand some Homebase stores as Bunnings. Read more - members only

Take a sneek peek at the new Wyevale website

Wyevale has offered Gardening Club members a sneek peek at its long awaited new website, which launches very soon. Read more - members only

Bunnings to pilot 10 warehouse stores

Bheta hears there will be 10 pilot Bunnings Warehouse stores by the end of next year, starting with St Albans, and there will be fewer direct imports. Read more - members only

PJ Davis

More independent garden centres show growth in 2015

Latest results on Gardenforum show growth in 2015 for garden centres like Otter Nurseries, Polhill, West Country Garden Centres and Woodthorpe Hall.  Sales declined for two suppliers of garden machinery. Read more - members only

Scotsdales holds consultation over new homes at Fordham

Scotsdales has held a public exhibition showing the proposed development of 250 homes on its garden centre at Fordham Read more - members only

Home & Garden to close Doveley’s Garden Centre

Doveley’s Garden Centre, which is leased by the Home & Garden group, starts a massive 3 day closing down sale on Friday. Read more - members only

Garden centres making the news

A chance meeting with Olympic cyclists, The Apple and Cider fair at Eggesford and houses planned for a former Wyevale garden centre are among the regional headlines this week. Read more - members only

A38 traffic congestion.  Picture from the Derby Telegraph

2015 was a good year for Haskins, Alton, A. Mir & Co and Europlants UK

The latest company results to be updated on Gardenforum include strong growth from A&E Leisure, Europlants and A. Mir & Co, plus figures from Alton Garden Centre, Pennell’s Holdings, Haskins and The Millbrook Garden Company. Read more - members only

T&M joins the Google Certified Shops program

Thompson & Morgan, gets the Google Certified Shops badge for its online range of seeds, plants, gardening equipment and outdoor living furniture. Read more - members only

Plant inspecting at T&M

Online sales grow 39% at B&Q

Interim results from Kingfisher show good progress unifying the buying and procurement across B&Q, Screwfix, and the international subsidiaries. Read more - members only

Green light for massive garden centre and factory outlet at Ashchurch

Secretary of State has shown a green light to the building of a £60m garden centre and factory outlet at Ashchurch that will create 1,000 jobs. Read more - members only

Wyevale restructures regional management

Wyevale is increasing its customer focus by restructuring its area managers and moving them out of head office.  This is likely to lead to redundancies at Syon Park. Read more - members only

Eyles and Stevens leave Hillview as Boyd restructures - UPDATED

Marcus Eyles and Neil Stevens have left Hillview garden centres resulting in a restructuring by CEO Boyd Douglas-Davies. - NEW INFORMATION ADDED Louise Golden is also to leave. Read more - members only

Boyd Douglas-Davies

Bunnings to outline Homebase plans at BHETA

Bunnings UK and Ireland managing director PJ Davis will make the first public presentation of Bunnings’ strategy for Homebase, at BHETA in November. Read more - members only

Andrew Bracey becomes chairman of Dobbies

Andrew Bracey, co-founder of Midlothian Capital that led the June buy-out of Dobbies, has become chairman of the garden centre group. Read more - members only

Dobbies at Liverpool

Taylors’ £1m expansion was a ‘big pill to swallow’

Taylors Bulbs new warehouse increases loading capacity in their peak seasons and will improve efficiency. Read more - members only

To see earlier stories - Look in the News Archive