Garden Centre Retail – March 2014 issue

Welcome to the March issue round-up of Garden Centre Retail

News Centre: A round-up of news from the industry

News Extra: The GCA Annual Conference

News Extra: HTA Catering Conference

Association News: The Garden Centre Association and Horticultural Trades Association share their thoughts on what they have planned for 2014.

Business Tips: Guy Moreton discusses recruiting the right staff, Simon Quinton Smith of Quinton Edwards talks about the state of the garden centre property market, Keith Bateman of Davidson Richards advises on the benefits of EPoS, and Jeremy Davies warns against the dangers of garden centre theft.

Opinions: Kevin Waters, garden retail consultant, gives his opinions on how garden centres can keep plants in the picture, and Jane Perrone, gardening expert and author, discusses what products are ?trending? in March.

View From The Top: In our very first big interview, we talk to Julian Winfield of Haskins, who shares his knowledge of the industry as well as lets us in on what Haskins has planned for this year.

Store Design: Paul Pleydell takes us into his world of store design and layout, discussing what shops are doing outside the garden retail industry and how garden centres can learn from them.

Plant Focus: Lucy Summers, garden designer and plant lover, tells you what methods to use to entice customers into the joys of modern plants and how you can upsell interesting and unique plants.

Plantarea Q&A: Garden Centre Retail looks at five different garden centres, including ?destination garden centre of the year Barton Grange, who tell us about the importance of plants in the world of garden retail.

Product Lines: Our Merchandise Editor Joe Wilkinson has put together a fantastic section of what products garden centres should be stocking, if they don’t already. He also looks at some of the top products from the Garden Press Event in February and talks to Nick Hills of WOLF-Garten tools in our very first ?Trading With? feature.

Jobs: A collection of vacancies from across the garden retail industry.

Staff Room: A selection of little interviews, a calendar of “what’s on”, and Alex’s blog all feature in our Staff Room section.