RETAIL INSIGHT


What’s on your agenda? We want to continue to grow our business in two ways. Firstly, we are committed to reinvesting profit back into our garden centres to keep upgrading them for staff and customers alike. Secondly, we would like to continue to expand and acquire new centres. However, we remain rooted in our locality. We don’t have national aspirations. We want to be able to get to each of our centres regularly and know as many of our colleagues as possible. We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we are a family business and that our extended family


includes our customers.


What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?


I feel very fortunate indeed to work in this industry. It’s very friendly and we have wonderful staff and customers alike. We work with beautiful plants and lovely products and get to meet really interesting people within the horticultural world and wider community. So the most rewarding aspect of my job is twofold: working with people and plants.


What’s selling well at the moment? We’re seeing a big trend in outdoor living and customers using their


our teams and


gardens as an extension of their home. Home, gift and clothing categories together now make up around 20% of turnover at Squire’s so they’re very important to us. The category also makes us slightly less weather-dependent than our core gardening offer. Plus, many of our centres also sell a range of specialist food items which are very popular. However, I still believe important


it’s to have a clear


understanding of who we are and what we are about. We are not general retailers - a somewhat dangerous place to be at present and open to immense competition (online and bricks-and-mortar) as well as more sensitive to the general economy than perhaps we’re used to in our weather-dominated industry. I feel very strongly that we must never lose focus on our plants and gardening products. It is who we are. Of course,


it’s important to


offer other products, but plants and gardening remain at the heart of what we do.


What are the biggest challenges facing garden centre retailers? Some challenges we can control and others we cannot, such as the weather and the wider economy. I believe we should focus on the things within our control and do them well.


There is nothing we can do to influence the outcome of Brexit but we can do our utmost to make sure we are prepared. We also need to do our utmost to co-operate with and our industry bodies to safeguard the plant health of the nation. We do find it challenging to


recruit skilled horticulturalists and we have been developing our own apprenticeship schemes to assist us, which have really proved invaluable. It’s wonderful to see our apprentices (of all ages) learn and succeed and achieve promotion.


What are the biggest opportunities? The fact that our customers see the benefits of gardening more and more as part of a healthy lifestyle. Gardening is great for your physical and mental wellbeing and a hobby that you can enjoy all your life. My grandfather was gardening right up to his death at the age of 97, which is certainly a good advert for the pursuit. Gardening can also be creative


and indeed academic if you wish. There are so many levels on which you can garden, from planting a few pots with colourful seasonal bedding plants to garden design and plant heritage – or the pure horticultural pleasure of propagating, pruning and harvesting.


In this country we have fantastic nurseries growing an increasing variety of better and better plants. Plant quality has never been so high. Buying UK-grown – and particularly locally-grown – also means less plant miles. Gardening for wildlife has also become increasingly important in providing habitat for native flora and fauna, so this is an area we focus on in terms of product and information.


What are the biggest changes you’ve seen since you joined the garden centre market?


“A lot has been written about experiential retailing and garden centres really are in the thick of it”


It’s changed enormously since the 1960s when, more or less, all we sold were plants, tools and a few fertilisers.


As well as the quality and variety of plants improving dramatically, thanks to the breeding programmes of so many fantastic nurseries, the range of other products available has grown exponentially. Years ago, who would have thought that we would be selling speciality


food ranges, gifts


or clothing? Yet these goods are another reason to visit and help to drive sales at otherwise quiet times of the year and when the weather is inclement. They have been instrumental in driving footfall. Catering has become increasingly


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significant, and in recent years has been growing at a greater pace than the rest of our business. It will be interesting to see whether that trend will flatten out or whether the public will continue to have a growing appetite for eating out. However, I still firmly believe that our USP is plants and gardening and that we neglect that part of our business at our peril. Plants should always, and unashamedly, be our favourite child in this business. Competition has evolved too. Our products can be sourced not just in garden centres but also in DIY sheds, online and, increasingly, in supermarkets. We are also competing for the


leisure time of our customers. Years ago there was not so much to do at the weekends. Nowadays you can shop, cycle, visit the gym, play computer games, visit theme parks, eat out to your heart’s content, find a festival… the list is endless. We are challenged to make sure that customers still want to visit us and have a great time and see lots of interesting items – and enjoy great food when they do. A lot has been written about experiential retailing and garden centres really are in the thick of it.


So, what’s the outlook?


Call me an optimist but I think that our sector is, and can continue to be, a force for good in our country. We already know how generous the industry is in its support of local charities and national causes such as Greenfingers [a national charity dedicated to supporting children who spend time in hospices around the UK, along with their families, by creating inspiring gardens for them to relax in and benefit from], Thrive [the leading charity in the UK using gardening to change the lives of disabled people] and Perennial [UK charity dedicated to helping people who work in horticulture when times get tough]. We can be great places to work, offering an interesting and varied career. We can look after our customers, offering them a professional yet very human, friendly and warm experience in our centres - which I think is increasingly valuable in a faceless electronic world. Plants are good for people and have a huge role to play in improving the physical and mental health of the nation. I think we should all be shouting very loudly indeed about the benefits of our industry to the economy and health of our nation.


This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in Housewares Magazine


14 JUNE 2019 DIY WEEK 9


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