A garden centre is a retail operation that sells plants and related products for the domestic garden as its primary business. It is a development from the concept of the retail plant nursery but with a wider range of outdoor products and on-site facilities. It is now usual for garden centres to obtain their stock from plants which have been propagated elsewhere, such as by specialist nurseries or wholesalers.
The DIY chains B&Q and Homebase also have their own garden departments, incorporated within or alongside their traditional DIY warehouses or stores.
In recent years, garden centres have evolved to become a leisure destination with play centres for children, restaurants and other activities designed to improve the shopping experience and increase the time spent at the centre. These changes have partly come about because the main competitors to the traditional garden centres, such as the DIY chains, have brought down prices. Competition has also increased from online garden centres such as Crocus and Greenfingers, although companies such as Capital Gardens, Dobbies, Riverside Garden Centre and The Garden Centre Group have now responded by developing and marketing their own online operations. Some open air attractions (e.g., National Trust properties, the RHS Garden, Wisley, Westonbirt Arboretum) also run small garden centres as additional sources of revenue or to discourage the unofficial taking of plant cuttings.
The peak business seasons in the UK are spring (March to June) and autumn (September and October). In addition Garden centres also achieve surges in popularity through the start of the winter season (November to January), when most of them sell goods related to Christmas, such as decorations and festive plants.
A garden centre offers more products and services than the traditional nursery which mainly retails plants. Garden centres offer not only garden supplies but also leisure buildings, garden furniture, products for pets and fish keeping, and giftware and home products. Many larger centres also have florist departments, wild bird care and their own restaurants. They have also diversified into the Christmas market heavily supplying such goods as traditional Christmas Trees, decorations and novelty and seasonal foods.
Garden centres include concessions that are either operated as manned, unmanned or short term promotional businesses. They trade under a lease and licence contract which govern the business relationship. garden centre concessions use their own branding, employ their own personnel and transact their sales thorough their own tills. The concessions are granted a degree of exclusivity to retail their product ranges which are complementary to the garden centre.
Online Garden Centre
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