industry news
Hambrooks Halloween Fright Night raises funds for the National
WGC launches community garden makeover initiative at three centres Wyevale Garden Centres has launched its
‘Garden Makeover’ programme at three of its centres nationwide, giving something back to the surrounding area by transforming the green spaces of local community groups.
Armitage’s Pennine, Armitage’s Birchencliffe and Raglan Garden Centres, all of which have been acquired by Wyevale Garden Centres in the last year, are the first to roll out the ‘Garden Makeover’ scheme.
Taking the form of an in centre competition, the shortlist of three community groups per centre was drawn up following nominations by the centre teams, culminating in an internal centre vote.
From October 19 until early December, customers at each garden centre can vote for their favourite group to win the ‘Garden Makeover’ by placing a plant bulb - given to them at the tills when they make a purchase - within the box of their choice.
Once the voting has drawn to a close, the winning community groups will be introduced to a landscape designer, who will work with them to give their outside space a spring clean, just in time for summer when the garden really comes in to its own for people’s enjoyment.
The garden centres will provide all of the plants and equipment needed for the ‘Garden Makeover’, as well as the manpower needed to carry out the actual work, including volunteers from the centre teams. WGC head of store transformation Brian Harris commented: “As a company, we understand the importance of investing in the local communities that surround our centres. We provide expert advice in all of our centres each and every day, helping to bring Britain to life, so now’s our time to take this out into the neighbourhood and put it in to practice. Our centre teams are really looking forward to the chance to get stuck in to these makeovers, making a huge difference to those who deserve it most in the local area.”
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Garden Scheme Hambrooks of Titchfield raised £250 for the National Garden Scheme (NGS) at its Garden Destination Centre with a Halloween Fright Night. The Garden Destination Centre was open to the public from 5pm till 7.30pm and Hambrooks treated visitors to complimentary Vampire cocktails, food, live music and juggling acts.
The Centre’s sixteen show gardens were decorated with cobwebs, ghoulish masks, oversized ghosts, spiders, bats and pumpkins with fierce faces. Under the covered walkway, haunting music screeched out from speakers, while there was a ‘Count the Ghosts’ competition for children and Titchfield WI provided a stall of homemade cakes. Head designer and manager Mike Hodges has been involved in opening his own garden for the NGS for several years and came up with the idea to open the show gardens out of hours.
He said: “I thought opening our show gardens was a little bit different and the NGS agreed it was a great idea. We wanted to make it a fun occasion for both adults and children and we left donation buckets around the Centre for visitors to make their own contribution and we were delighted with their generosity.”
The National Garden Scheme encourages the opening of gardens throughout the UK to raise funds for a number of charities including Marie Curie, Parkinson's and the Princes Trust.
New catering areas at Bradford garden centre create 35 jobs
Improvements to the catering areas at Tong Garden Centre have benefited the community with the creation of 35 new jobs for local people.
The refurbishment of the 132 seater Orchard restaurant is the latest part of an ambitious and ongoing programme of improvements that have been implemented since the centre was acquired by businessmen Mark Farnsworth and Tom Megginson in May.
In addition to the jobs created, the refurbishment also benefited the local economy
as all of the work was undertaken by West Yorkshire based businesses. The restaurant's tray bakes, scones and quiche are made on site in the William's Farm Kitchen bakery and 90% of the remaining suppliers to the restaurant are Yorkshire based.
Mark Farnsworth said: “Since we acquired the business in May, we have created 45 new jobs, including 35 in the catering team that services the Orchard Restaurant, the new coffee shop and Grasshoppers Adventure Playground café and we have increased the number of catering covers from 100 to 308.
“To celebrate the refurbishment, and to build on the £5,000 that we raised for Martin House Children's Hospice throughout the summer, we will donate 50p from the sale of every Christmas dinner bought in the Orchard Restaurant to this very worthy cause.” In addition to refurbishing the Orchard Restaurant, the new owners have remerchandised the plant area, created a new café and food hall, built a children's adventure playground and café, introduced concessions and have refurbished all areas of the garden centre. Mark concluded: “In years gone by, Tong was an iconic garden centre in the North of England and we intend to return it to that status and really broaden the appeal of the centre. The changes that we have made, including the much improved catering facilities, will help us really put Tong back on the map.”
GCU November 2015
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