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RETAIL Bents Garden & Home
Coming Up Roses
for 85 Years
Bents Garden & Home has built business success by combining its proud history and heritage with innovation in all departments. Sarah Welsh spoke to chief executive Matthew Bent, as this leading independent looks ahead to its 85th anniversary year… Bents Garden & Home has come a long way since pioneering couple Alfred and Margaret Bent launched what would expand to become a cherished family business, by growing and selling roses in the front garden of their terraced home. Some eight-and-a-half decades on, Bents is now led by the third generation of Bents, Alfred and Margaret’s grandchildren – including current chief executive Matthew – with their great-grandchildren also invested in the hugely successful independent garden centre brand. Not only that but it sits just yards from where it all began in Glazebury, Warrington. Here Matthew lets us in on all things Christmas – past, present, and future – at Bents
Bents celebrates its 85th anniversary this year. What celebration plans are there currently, and will this form part of your Christmas shop 2022?
Yes, 2022 marks this important anniversary for us. Plans are currently being put in place to mark the occasion, and will include events throughout the year. It will also definitely feature in our Christmas 2022 wonderland – but as always
We are still a family business. It was Alfred and Margaret’s sons, Ron and John, along with Ron’s wife Wendy, who expanded the business even further and, whilst John retired in the early 1980s, Ron’s passion and entrepreneurial spirit guided the business through the 1990s and into the Noughties. We are now in our third
“We believe customers want to be transported to a world of imagination and this is why we work so hard to create a new and magical experience every year.” this will be kept strictly under wraps until the official opening date in October.
16 christmas in january
As a family business, how many of you are involved with working on Christmas?
generation with myself and my three sisters all involved with the business. Helen is head of
marketing; Katherine is head of HR and Rachel heads up the visual merchandising team and coordinates our Christmas campaigns. It doesn’t stop there though, as members of the fourth generation are also in the business. Oliver, Rachel’s eldest son, and Ethan, my own eldest child, are currently working part time in our dining and pricing function.
In 1978 Bents famously sold over a thousand fresh Christmas trees in just one day. Is this still a big specialist focus for Bents? What about artificial trees?
The introduction of fresh Christmas trees, seasonal plants and being one of the first garden centres to sell a small range of decorations started what would become a lifetime passion for the festive season for Bents.
christmasinjanuary.co.uk
