NEWS Squire’s
names Long Ditton site its Garden Centre of the Year
Squire’s Garden Centres has announced the winners of its annual garden centre awards, with its branch in Long Ditton coming out top and winning the double – best Garden Centre and best Café Bar of the year.
Despite tough competition amongst the independent chain’s 15 garden centres, Long Ditton also won top awards for its Christmas department and pets & aquatics department. The awards were voted for by the senior management team at Squire’s, and are based on results, as well as customer feedback. Anne Deadman, Manager at Squire’s in Long Ditton, received the trophies from Chairman Colin Squire and Deputy Chairman Sarah Squire.
Other notable winners included
Theresa Scattergood at Squire’s in Washington, and Emma Large at Squire’s in Badshot Lea, who both won Customer Service Awards for their work in the Garden Centre and Café Bar respectively.
Deputy Chairman Sarah Squire said: “These awards recognise the great effort and achievement made by our garden centres, and by individual employees, throughout the year. A big well done and thank you to everyone for their hard work which is much appreciated.”
Bunnings kicks off 2018 with two new stores
Home improvement and garden retailer Bunnings Warehouse officially opened its doors in Rochdale on January 3, creating over 80 full and part-time jobs, after announcing that Rochdale would be on the list for future Bunnings locations back in September. The new store in Sandbrook Park, is the biggest Bunnings Warehouse yet, at over 110,000sq ft and occupies a former B&Q unit on the retail park. When Kingfisher announced it would be pulling out of the site, plans had been submitted to redevelop it and introduce several new retailers to the park, including Wickes and a B&M Home store, as well as a leisure outlet, KFC restaurant and Travelodge hotel. The application, submitted by developers AIG Holdings in
November 2016 would have seen part of the B&Q store demolished, with the remainder converted into five separate commercial units. Whilst the development was given the green light by Rochdale council in July 2017, Bunnings submitted a successful application to occupy the entire site the following month. Bunnings Warehouse also opened for business in Chichester the following day on January 4, creating over 20 full and part time jobs. The new store, which is on the site of the former Homebase in Discovery Park, is over 80,000 square feet and offers customers more than 30,000 leading home improvement and garden products from a wide range of global market-leading brands. Other services include everything from paint mixing to
key cutting, a garden centre, timber cutting and in-store D.I.Y. Workshops. Current Homebase stores closed for refurbishment before being converted into a Bunnings store are Walton- on-thames, Walthamstow, Hanworth, Newmarket and High Wycombe.
Woodie’s post revenue jump in Q4 as merchanting sector ‘softens’
Grafton Group’s retailing division, which includes Irish retailer Woodie’s DIY, has recorded a growth in revenue of 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Woodie’s traded strongly
through the year benefitting from the strong economy, new and extended product ranges and store upgrades. The uplift in sales was said to be influenced by “good demand across all product ranges”, the group said. The latest figures were posted in
Record year for Koelnmesse in 2017
Trade fair firm Koelnmesse reported record turnover and profits for last year, as trade fairs in Cologne grew by an average of 13% The company, which organises 80 trade fairs and events, including the International Hardware Fair Cologne and Spoga Gafa, reported a record-breaking year in 2017, with a turnover of €350 million, up 10% on its previous record year in 2015. “We achieved our ambitious
growth targets as promised and even added a bit on top,” said Koelnmesse CEO Gerald Böse,
www.diyweek.net
who believes this latest success is symbolic of the, “turnaround and sustained growth that the company has achieved in recent years as a result of hard work.” The profit achieved amounts to more than €20 million. The strong performance has primarily been attributed to the company’s core business: the organisation of events in Cologne and in key foreign markets. In 2017 the turnover of the trade fairs in Cologne increased by around 13% on average compared to the respective preceding events.
Eight events in Cologne, covering a number of different sectors, grew at a double-digit rate. Some of the foreign trade fairs, including those in Brazil, India and Thailand, also saw significant increases in exhibitor and visitor numbers. It will also invest over €50 million in digitalisation by 2022 as part of the Koelnmesse 3.0 programme, for innovative digital
services such as the furnishings platform ambista, and for the creation of a new state-of-the- art IT infrastructure. Provided that global economic development remains stable, the company plans to achieve average annual profits in the double-digit million range until 2021 and to regularly post a turnover of more than €300 million each year.
19 JANUARY 2018 DIY WEEK 5
Grafton Group’s trading update for the year ended December 31, 2017 in advance of the announcement of its Final Results for 2017 on March 1. Within its UK merchanting division, average daily like-for-like revenue growth softened, “as anticipated,” in the fourth quarter against the backdrop of strong growth in the final quarter of 2016. The opening of branches in Solihull and Hayes in December increased the Selco branch network to 59 in a
year that saw significant growth in market coverage with the opening of twelve new branches. The Group’s merchanting business in Ireland completed its fourth successive year of double- digit like-for-like revenue growth with an increase of 16.2% in, what was described as “a favourable economic and construction market” that continues to exhibit good growth prospects. The company reports that the year ended on a strong note.
Australian retail giant
Wesfarmers, which owns the Bunnings chain, acquired Homebase for £340million in February 2016 – and plans to invest a further £500million building a new Bunnings Warehouse business in the UK and Ireland over a five-year plus timeframe.
Wickes significantly expands wallpaper offer with Graham & Brown designs
Home improvement retailer Wickes has added 279 brand new wallpaper styles, from designer Graham & Brown, to its existing range.
The newest additions to
the Wickes wallpaper portfolio comprise of a selection of popular design trends including Duck Egg and Rose Gold. According to the retailer, there are a variety of styles, patterns and colours to suit different tastes and room spaces. The new range features super fresco paste-the-wall paper, which allows users to simply apply wallpaper adhesive to the wall instead of the back of the wallpaper. Graham & Brown joins a host of other brands now available at Wickes, which formerly only carried own-brand ranges.
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