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association comment Preparation is key


Garden Centre Association (GCA) chairman Mike Lind talks about excellent service to consumers and improving their retail standards whilst the association’s annual garden centre inspections begin.


As you’re reading this our member garden centres will be making the most of the season and hopefully enjoying some good weather, making for ideal gardening conditions for customers.


We’ve already seen a positive start to the year, with houseplant and outdoor sales really taking off thanks to the much milder than usual weather we’ve been experiencing, and long may it continue. Our inspectors have now started their annual visits to our member centres and this year Jane Lawler has joined Alyson Haywood, Michael Cole and Gordon Emslie on our team. She will be responsible for inspecting centres in North Thames, Scotland and Northern Ireland.


A way forward


The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) looks at the importance of recycling in the garden industry, especially as the prominent issue of single use plastic is a prominent issue in all businesses.


The HTA and the Nursery Working Group have enlisted the support of recycling charity RECOUP to work on the next phase of the project – to ensure that Local Authorities across the country accept non-black plant pots from kerbside recycling schemes.


As part of this representatives from the horticultural industry visited Viridor’s Plastics Recovery Facility in Rochester, Kent to find out more about the plastics recycling process and the demand for polypropylene for recycling. The visit allowed those businesses in the industry working with the taupe pot and other recycled / recyclable pots to see how the plastics recovery process worked and to track the journey of plastic through the waste stream and back into circulation. Attendees included Farplants, Bransford Webbs, Allensmore, Aeroplas, Soparco and Popplemann. Viridor, a founding signatory to the UK Plastics Pact, is committed to advising all


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sectors on how to ensure greater recyclability, helping the UK to choose recycled materials over virgin plastic and achieve its circular economy goals. The company is working with the HTA and the charity Recoup on trials to achieve greater plant pot recycling.


Welcoming the taupe pot this spring Taupe pots are starting to make an appearance in garden centres this spring with an estimated 70% of commercially produced ornamental plants starting to be grown in them. The initiative was introduced by the Nursery Working Group – a grower led group facilitated by the HTA, as a way forward to help ensure that pots used in horticulture are kerbside recyclable. The taupe pot is a carbon-black pigment free polypropylene pot which can be produced by any plastic plant pot manufacturer with the capability to fulfil the required specification. The specification is that the pot is 100% recyclable and made from as high a


percentage of recycled polypropylene (PP) as possible, preferably from a UK source. This is mainly produced in taupe although is available in other colours. The pot is designed to be kerbside recyclable where possible and replace the traditional black plastic plant pot currently favoured as an industry standard by ornamental plant producers.


These inspections are integral in ensuring our member centres are offering a consistently excellent service to consumers and improving their retail standards, which is what all our garden centres must do to remain members. Each centre is assessed across all its departments and scored accordingly. The scoring system is very detailed with more than 200 separate criteria for the inspector to assess, from the website and telephone surveys, and then when they arrive on-site from the roadside and car park, all the way through the various retail departments.


There are some ‘basics’ on the inspection form. Keeping paths clear and accessible, stock neat and tidy, trolleys visible and general housekeeping go a long way to helping the scores, and customer’s ease of shopping. On the day of the visit the garden centre


manager and other members of the team are given access to the inspection form and can read the inspector’s comments. Some centres like to print these off and pass to staff so they can all go through them and see if there’s anything they need to work on. A folder of photos is also sent through after the visit, which can really help staff see through the inspector’s eyes.


One of our top tips for members is to keep these inspection forms and comments safe and when the inspections roll around the following year they can call on them once again and ensure they’re getting everything right. Later in the year we host our regional award meetings where staff get together and are presented with feedback from the inspectors. This is really helpful for everyone and a good way for them to see what others are doing well and what they can work on themselves. Many of our members say the annual inspections are one of the most beneficial reasons for joining as they can learn so much and keep on improving year after year. Member garden centres do not know exactly when an inspector is dropping in, but they do know the potential date range, so all centres who have yet to be inspected, it’s time to get prepared.


• For further information, please call 01244 952170. Alternatively, please visit our website www.gca.org.uk, log on to


www.facebook.com/pages/GardenCentreAssoci ation or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GC_Association.


GCU June 2019


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