industry news
British Garden Centres acquires Hillview centres
from Hillview Group British Garden Centres has announced that they have completed the acquisition of Hillview Garden Centres (HGC) from The Hillview Group. The transaction included both the operational business and portfolio of eight garden centres of HGC. This latest acquisition brings the total number of stores in British Garden Centres to 57, making them the second largest garden centre group in the UK. British Garden Centres have undergone an
expansion programme, growing from 10 centres in 2018, acquiring 39 ex-Wyevale sites over the past few months and now adding Hillview centres at Charlbury, Heanor, Studley, Matlock, Charlecote, Bromsgrove, Tenbury Wells and Newton Regis to the portfolio.
Commenting, director Phillipa Stubbs, said: “The most exciting part of this latest acquisition is the fit. Not only does this group of centres help with our geographical expansion, but the whole culture of the Hillview team slots so well into the British Garden Centre philosophy.” “We’ve all seen how hard it can be to make a large
corporate model successful in the garden centre business; that’s why our philosophy is so different. We are focusing on bringing all the benefits of a larger organisation whilst retaining the strengths of a family run business. Our individual centre teams all have their own local personality and close relationships with loyal customers. My job is to support them in doing what’s right in their own centres. And the great news for these latest eight centres who are joining the group is that they can now benefit from the financial support and working capital that will allow them to grow the business.”
Hillview Garden Centres has been run for the past 8 years by Boyd Douglas-Davies who will be taking up a senior role at British Garden Centres with immediate effect. He added: “I’m so pleased to see HGC settling into its new home with British Garden Centres. All the staff have transferred across so the experience and team spirit is intact! There’s so many opportunities ahead of us now.”
The eight centres have been trading under the British Garden Centre umbrella since late-September under an agreement with Hillview Group that was designed to ensure the business made the most of the busy Christmas trading period. The approach has already paid dividends with the centres reporting strong sales up on the same period last year.
Clothing and houseplants top sales lists for
garden centres in November Clothing and houseplants were best sellers at garden centres across the
country according to the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) Barometer of Trade (BoT) report for November 2019.
Compared to the same month in 2018, sales in clothing were up 15.92% followed closely by houseplants at 15.38%.
Iain Wylie, GCA chief executive, commented: “It’s interesting to see non-traditional and traditional categories such as clothing and houseplants doing well at the same time of year. Items of clothing make great Christmas gifts, so it looks like customers were stocking up. The weather also became much chillier during November, so customers were also wrapping themselves up warm with new togs. “The rise in sales of houseplants coincides with the introduction of festive houseplants such as Poinsettias, Cyclamen and Hyacinths and it looks like lots of customers were popping these in their baskets in order to bring some much-needed colour into their homes.
“Of course, there’s no surprise at this time of year that gift sales were up 11.48% and general Christmas sales were up 13.4% as people prepared for the ‘big day’.” Sales in pets and aquatics departments were also up at 13.84%. Catering sales were up 10.54% and food hall and farm shop sales were up 8.26%. Seed and bulb sales were up 3.97%, garden sundries sales were up at 5.26%. Iain added: “Outdoor plant sales were down -5.82%, furniture and barbecue sales were down -10.61% and hard landscaping sales were down -19.3%, but this is to be expected thanks to the time of year and the weather.” Overall sales for the month were up 8.63% with a year to date change of 5.99%.
Record sales for Squire’s
Squire’s Garden Centres has published its financial results for the year ending 31 July 2019. It was a year of record sales; turnover increased by 15% to £57m, helped by excellent weather conditions throughout the peak season. Turnover was also boosted by the addition of the newly acquired centre at Frensham, which
joined the group on 1 August 2018. And in its first full year, the redeveloped Woking centre beat budget and made a strong contribution to sales growth.
Customer numbers in the garden centres, which dropped by 1% in the last financial year, rose by 10%. In the café bars, there was a very satisfactory gain of 6% (2018: +7%). Average transaction value (ATV) in the Garden Centres was up by +4% (2018: +3%) while in the Café Bars ATV rose +12% (2018: +5%).
As a result of the substantial sales growth and improved margins, mitigated to some extent by higher payroll costs and overheads, profit before tax increased by 16% to £3.7m (LY: £3.2m) on an underlying basis.
Net debt (gross borrowings, less cash) dropped by £1.1m to £3.7m at the year-end. Total capital investment in the year was £3.3m. Following the purchase of Heathlands Garden Centre in Wokingham from Wyevale on 1
August 2019, the first day of the new financial year, Squire’s now has 16 garden centres across the South East.
GCU January/February 2020
www.gardencentreupdate.com | 7
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