NEWS EXTRA
For Bents, perennial plants are now the biggest market. The nursery affords it the luxury of taking plants off the shopfloor and pruning them back to re-flower, so they are in peak condition before being put back out for sale. This ensures good quality, mature plants and is what helps its offer stand out from other garden retailers. “We start off with a one- litre plant and then we move it up to a two, three or even a four litre, depending on how we want to offer it for sale,” explained Ron. “The way to develop a good plant is to keep trimming it to make it bush out and then it’s stronger. But a lot of the modern wholesale nurseries can’t do that because it takes too long and it’s more labour intensive. It makes the crop longer to produce. Growing is a production line – the faster it goes, the more money you make. “We grow more for a quality
product, knowing it will cost us more but it will give us a point of difference.” Another perk is that plants can be sent over from the nursery to the shopfloor just as they are coming into colour, making for vivid displays and plants that catch a customer’s eye.
Despite the obvious benefits, the
trend for garden centres growing their own is not common anymore and Bents has to work hard to make sure the nursery business is running as efficiently as possible. “We’re a dying breed,” said Ron. “It’s not that profitable. You can quite often buy in cheaper than you can grow and it has probably taken us several years to focus on systems and things to get the nursery profitable.” He continued: “We were at a point where we could order from Holland on a Monday and have them delivered on Wednesday but order from the nursery on a Monday and you get them on a Thursday or Friday. We’re much more efficient now but that’s how it was.” Explaining the trappings, Ron added: “We run the nursery as a separate business. It sells to the garden centre, which puts its order in the year before and then the nursery grows to order. It grows to a programme, so that, for example, penstemons will be programmed for this month to come into flower and that’s the income for this month. It’s amazing, if you miss an income, if you miss one crop for that month,
Father and son Ron and Matthew Bent stand proudly with a photo of Bents’ founders, Margaret and Alfred
then you’re sales have gone. So, it gets very technical to make sure you’ve got the right crops ready at the right time, coming on.” The biggest seller this season was a five-litre pot of West Country lupins, grown at the nursery. “They were on sale for £19.99 had about four or five flowers on in the pot,” explained Ron. “And they flew out – people were taking two or three at a time. I think we sold £25,000- worth in about four weeks.” Sales were boosted by coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show,
added Matthew Bent. “It hit at just the right time and Chelsea was really getting behind it. They did look amazing though.”
Striving to innovate Bents has always been pro-active about grabbing opportunities and has strived to innovate, doing things many small independents wouldn’t think of doing. “I think we’ve always been forward thinking and forward driving,” said Ron. “We are always looking at how we can do something better.” When he was at the helm,
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