Coming of age for Cherry Lane

Nick Rubins (centre) with some of the team from head office Cherry Lane - Pulham Market Garden Centre, Norfolk.

Coming of age for

C h e r r y Lan e

Celebrating 21 years of trading, Cherry Lane Garden Centres, where value is the name of the game, is on target to become the fifth largest garden centre group in the UK. Nick Rubins, Chief Executive, shares his thoughts on retailing, value for money and the company’s future.

The Rubins family has retail running through its veins and is currently in acquisition mode. As GTN goes to press we learn that Riverside Nursery & Garden Centre in Hockley, Essex will be the 17th garden centre, bringing the total to 20 if you include those within QD Stores. Another reason for celebration this year as the first Cherry Lane Garden Centre, part of the QD Commercial Group Holdings, opened 21 years ago in 2001.

“We’re acquisitive as a family,” says Nick Rubins. “We’re looking to expand and we look at all the opportunities that come across myself and my father’s desk. It’s quite an interesting time, but we never say never. We don’t have an ultimate vision…. why limit yourself?”

Since the 1930’s the family has been in business. Nick’s grandmother supplied clothing and his father, known as D.R. opened the first QD Store in Anglia Square, Norwich in 1985. Known for offering value, QD Stores can be found on high streets from the east of England and the home

counties to Doncaster – the group has its headquarters in Nottingham and customer service centre in Norwich. The first Cherry Lane Garden Centres in Norfolk and Suffolk were, however, not on the high street. “Business rates were becoming increasingly more expensive on the high street, and the opportunity to potentially put a QD Store in a garden centre environment was a very appealing one,” says Nick. “But what we found out very quickly was that it’s a different customer, you need a different product and it didn’t work. The idea was right but we didn’t quite deliver it properly,” says Nick.

It may look to some that the range of non-gardening goods in a Cherry Lane centre is the same as in a QD Store but there are subtle differences and they are treated as two separate brands. “We buy completely differently for the two. And if there are crossovers, that’s great,” explains Nick. What is the same though is that all products must offer value for money. “Value guaranteed is something that some important,” says Nick. So much so that each day he challenges everyone in the business to look at the products and services being offered and ask ‘is that value guaranteed?’.

To ensure the same applies on its range of plants the company has four of its own nurseries which now supply around 40% of its stock – a figure growing year on year. “We are passionate about growing because what we want is a local garden centre feel. We don’t want a John Lewis in a posh building, that’s not our target market. We want gardeners and local people, and part and parcel of that is the plant offer. Giving variety and a depth of range with value guaranteed is the key ingredient.”

This value approach even works down to environmental considerations. Nick says he would happily set up electric car charging points at his stores but they don’t offer value for the customer. “I could go out tomorrow and get chargers, but then my customer will face this bill for it being offered and it wouldn’t be value for money. But we would like too,” he adds.

Other planet-friendly initiatives are in place though and for some years the company has been recycling empty compost bags returned to the stores by customers. “We’ve got a recycling unit that separates and goes through all aspects of everything that goes in there. It’s quite a little centre in its own right these days,” explains Nick.

It also offers, where possible, environmentally friendly alternatives to established products. “Every viable alternative that is sustainable has to be the same price as a similar product, so a customer really has a real choice,” says Nick.

The company has also moved to using 100% renewable energy and made huge changes to its plastic and carboard use. “We have reduced the amount of plastic and cardboard recycled by 855 tonnes and grown around 600,000 products in our nurseries.”

As with most garden centres, catering is a crucial part of the business but Nick admits that at the moment and in common with many in the leisure sector, staffing is proving to be a tough challenge. Another demand on time is the new rule for companies with more than 250 staff to display the calories in each dish. “It’s a big piece of work and I think that’s a bit of a shame, to be honest, because we have one garden centre that is amazing at scones and another one that amazing at quiches. But we are having to make sure the recipes are consistent so we’re taking the best of every garden centre…. and hopefully have the best practice across them all.”

Nick is third generation and joined the company after gaining a business degree, working in the property market and running a men’s clothing business. He has two sons currently studying and hopes they may join the business. “If they come in, that will be fantastic. I’ve worked with my father for around 34 years. We’ve had one argument and it lasted half an hour and then we burst out laughing. If I could have that same relationship with one of my boys, then that would be quite something. ”

People are surprised that QD and Cherry Lane are family run especially staff who find their place of work has been newly acquired by the group. But Nick says it’s important to build on the local knowledge and success and not change the name – hence why for example its New Year acquisition is called Redford & Gainsborough by Cherry Lane. “When we buy a garden centre, the owners want to know its in safe hands because they’ve put so much emotion over years into it. It must be soul destroying for someone to go and say, all right, we’re now going to call it X and see everything you’ve done in the past kicked into touch. If they’ve been successful so many years, why obliterate that and do your own thing?”

This business ethos has proved to be successful but even so, with Cherry Lane being the fifth largest garden centre group in the country, Nick still feels a bit of an outsider and not quite part of the garden centre establishment. “We just do our own thing. We’re very quiet in what we do and we don’t shout about that. We’re family people always striving to improve every part of our business every day. ”

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