Christmas buying is getting earlier and overall sales have dropped in many centres, not helped by snow on the peak live tree weekend, closing some centres. Despite this, overall garden centre sales are up for 2017. Read more

furnitureoutletstores.co.uk is one of the first UK websites to offer the furniture outlet experience to online shoppers. Their offer includes garden furniture with a guarantee of the UK’s lowest prices. Read more

According to Modern Farmer, Amazon has patented an image recognition service that will provide gardeners with planting advice and a view of what their garden could look like in say 5 years. Read more

The future of horticultural wholesaler, LBS, looks secure as 2 new investors are to take control. The company hopes a CVA will be agreed with creditors next week. Read more

Bents have wrestled the GCA Christmas Display award back from Barton Grange, while Castle Gardens in Sherborne prove invincible yet again in the category for smaller garden centres. Read more

The Hillier Awards Night celebrated a record year for the group. Suppliers and garden centres collected their awards as Robert Hillier praised the impact Chris Francis has made since taking control in March 2014. Read more

Over 100 suppliers attended a meeting this morning to hear Wyevale’s CEO Roger McLaughlan and his team explain how the group is getting its act together and improving standards. Read more

B&M the discount home and garden retailer increased sales by 17% as consumers shift to discount formats. Margins fell, partly due to end of season clearance on gardening and outdoor products. Read more

Demand for Christmas at garden centres seems higher than ever on the South coast. Haskins are expecting over 1m visitors, while Stewarts Garden Centres payment gateway and phones became swamped as 10,000 tried to book their visit to Santa. Read more

It has been confirmed that LBS Worldwide Ltd is in administration. It is continuing to trade, managed by the administrators. Read more

Bunnings has reported a 14% drop in sales for Homebase over the last quarter. But they remain encouraged by the performance of the Bunnings pilots. Read more

Gardman reduces losses in its first full year following the buyout in June 2015 by Rutland Partners LLP and says it has significant finance to invest in new categories. Read more

Carol Paris has joined Jackie Eades on the board of Briers, the UK’s leading garden glove and boot supplier, to guide it through its next phase of growth. Read more

Coolings Nurseries says it has agreed to buy The Potted Garden Nursery, which is located very close to Leeds Castle in Kent. They take over on Nov 1^st. Read more

Deco-Pak is to sever links with a discount retailer so that it can develop a more creative offer for specialist garden centres. Read more

2017 started with a flourish but lost momentum and settled to be an OK year. Suppliers worried about Brexit, the living wage, higher costs and Wyevale. Retailers and growers worried about Xylella. Takeover activity reached new peaks among suppliers, but no major garden centres changed hands. The industry said goodbye to some old friends. Read our review – (open to non-subscribers). Read more

Bunnings UK continues to experiment with different formats with the imminent opening of a small format store in Bicester. Read more

A year after its devastating fire Ansell receives planning permission to rebuild. Work starts in January, bigger than before. Read more

Dobbies Garden Centres delayed to the last minute the publication of their first accounts under its new private equity owners. They show how the trading arm has been separated from the properties. Read more

Thetford’s expansion has lifted it into the GCA category for elite destination garden centres.  Further ‘out-there’ expansion is planned including a coffee shop in shipping containers – with a stage.   Read more

Stax has followed up this autumn’s E.P. Barrus deal with a second that will add Flymo and McCulloch to its garden tools range. Read more

Accounts recently published show how sales have tumbled at garden centres acquired by Wyevale. The only exception is Woodcote Green, where the local management have been allowed to continue managing the garden centre. Read more

Rosebourne has started building its second garden centre at a site near Aldermaston. It will replicate the formula successfully developed at Andover which opened a year ago. Read more

Bonnetts Garden Village, the first garden centre for Chris Bonnett the owner of online retailer Gardening Express, is to open its main store on Saturday 11th November, having traded since late May in plants. Read more

Downtown Garden Centre near Grantham, part of the Oldrid Group, has submitted plans for an outlet village with 107 retail outlets and a new garden centre. Read more

Stax is to offer distribution to manufacturers following the acquisition of PDS Logistics last week. The deal will increase flexibility and improve availability as Stax takes control of its supply chain. Read more

Melmar Stone has announced that it has taken on the range of hand cast resin statues that used to be sold by DaVinci Home and Garden Products. Read more

Brexit fears have increased demand for UK grown plants leading Allensmore to add a further 9 acres of outdoor production. Read more

Scotts Miracle-Gro called on the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) to find that two adverts for Safelawn by Westland were misleading. Their complaint was not upheld. Read more

One of Ireland’s foremost growers of nursery stock, Flannery’s Nurseries, is looking to develop its market by expanding into the UK with Bob Haward as their agent. Read more