Meadow View Stone

An award winning range of 8 small grade chippings

NEWrange Potstars Outdoor Living Range A range of pebbles and slates in handy pouch bags ideal for pot topping. Potstars Indoor Living Range Improved recyclable pouch bags and 4 new products boost the range. NEW packag i ng

NEWproducts 3 New Products in the Range Two sizes of midnight pebbles, in 8-16 and 16-25mm, along with Tuscan Ice 20mm add to the expansive collection. New Bag Design The foundation range gets a revamp, bringing the design more in-line with current collections and the colours more associated with construction.

NEW packag i ng

Award Winning Customer Service We are honoured to have been voted ‘GCA supplier of the year’ for the second consecutive year.

T h e e xc i t e m e n t b u i l d s

Christmas got off to an earlier than usual start with a flurry of early sales in September but the milder than usual October weather contributed to a slowing of Christmas sales.

However, judging by the feedback from the first judging visits for GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards that has all changed in November. Excitement and expectations are building with some popular lines already selling out. The GTN bestsellers index of the Top 50 Bestselling Christmas lines was also showing increases year on year during October indicating that customers are happy to buy some Christmas cheer, especially the most popular items.

You can see the full list of centres the GTN team are visiting on Page 9.

Garden centre retailing appears to have a bouyant future judging by the spike of activity this month. Dobbies opened Tewkesbury with high profile media coverage, Hilliers snapped up the three Rosebourne centres and Blue Diamond eventually managed to secure the deal to buy all three Van Hage Garden Centres including the PE1 Retail Park at Peterborough.

With two more acquisitions in the pipeline Alan Roper told GTN: “I think if you offer the right experience, people will be more selective. So, I’m optimistic, but I don’t shy away from the challenges, I thrive on a challenge, so I’m not particularly concerned about [the downturn of the economy].”

You’ll be able to read the full interview with Alan Roper in the December Sustainability Directory issue of GTN.

Until then, we look forward to meeting many of you on our Christmas travels. Have a great Christmas sales period!

Ho, ho, ho!

Above: GTN’s Features Editor, Anisa Gress and Editor Trevor Pfeiffer had their first meeting of the season with Santa at Alton Garden Centre, one of the entries in The Greatest Grotto Team Award

In this issue...

4 Dobbies Tewkesbury opens – GTN Interview with CEO Graeme Jenkins

9 Judging is underway – GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards update 10 A Greenfingers greeting from Woodmansterne

13 GIMA Awards 2022 Roll of Honour 26 The magic behind RocketGro 28 Learning from each other on a HTA BIS Study Tour 30 Choice Marketing celebrate 20 years 31 Vitavia – a ‘way of life’

32 Illumination Street 2022

33 LOFA Column – Making a difference together

34 HTA Column – Filling some big shoes! 6 Treadstone

6 Hortiwool

7 STV Interenational

8 GIMA Awards 2023

12 Primeur

25 Smart Garden Products 29 Sipcam - ecofective

EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING

Garden Trade News Potting Shed Press Ltd Dairy Drove Thorney Peterborough PE6 0TX Tel 01733 775700 www.gardentradenews.co.uk

THE GTN TEAM

Editor Trevor Pfeiffer trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk Advertising Sales Alan Burdon Alan@pottingshedpress.co.uk Features Editor Anisa Gress anisa@pottinghsedpress.co.uk Associate Editor Mike Wyatt mike@pottingshedpress.co.uk Digital Editor Neil Pope neil@pottingshedpress.co.uk Subscriptions Karen Pfeiffer karen@pottingshedpress.co.uk

Design & Production

AT Graphics Ltd www.atgraphicsuk.com Kirsty Craner – Design Alun Jones – Production Manager Robert Tipping – Managing Director James Tipping – Technical Director Printing CG Print Ltd

Do you qualify for a copy of GTN?

If you’d like to be added to the GTN distribution list, please send your details to Karen@pottingshedpress.co.uk to see if you qualify to be included. Alternatively, if you prefer your Garden Trade News digitally, sign up for GTN Xtra, our weekly e-mail newsetter at www.gardentradenews.co.uk And, if you want the fastest garden centre sales analysis, take out a subscription to GTN Bestsellers our printed weekly sales data newsletter. For just £145.00 per year you get Top 50 sales charts created from weekly garden centre epos data. Contact trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk for more details and to subscribe.

Potting Shed Press Ltd

Garden Trade News is published by Potting Shed Press Ltd who also publish: GTN Bestsellers, GTN Xtra, Glee Daily News and the Glee Catalogue, and the Solex Sun. Potting Shed Press also supply Garden Radio to over 100 garden centres across the country.

Director Trevor Pfeiffer

SMALL PRINT: All material © Potting Shed Press Ltd 2022. No part of this publication may e reproduced in any form whatsoever, either for sale or not, without the express permission of the publishers. The information supplied in this publication is published in good faith and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. Potting Shed Press Ltd cannot accept responsibility for any error or misrepresentation. All liability for loss, disappointment, negligence or other damage caused by reliance on information contained in this publication or in the vent of any bankruptcy or liquidation or cassation of the trade of any company, individual or firm mentioned, is hereby excluded.