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The unique Garden Retail Top 100 looks at the turnover of individual garden centres, supplied either by garden centre groups or estimated by Horticulture Week.
This year has seen the biggest single sites raise turnover through expanding and honing their offer to take advantage of footfall when it is there, and to more than tick over when gardening weather is poor.
The south-east of England dominates the top of the list. New entries come from old faces Notcutts and Dobbies, which have upped turnover at modern sites. Tong Garden Centre is the stand-out riser, the Yorkshire sleeping giant having been revamped by new owners. But the lack of new entries shows how new builds have dried up, with big expenditure on new sites not paying off, as perhaps shown by Tesco's near pounds 50m write-down of Dobbies' centres last year. But revamps are rife, with a dozen or more entries improving their restaurants in particular, with car parks, children's play and concession extensions the next most popular plans.
Dobbies' near identikit styling means it is the top group in the list, with Blue Diamond and Notcutts increasing high-turnover sites and Wyevale losing some entries. Figures from last year's edition (HW, 29 May 2015) are shown in brackets.
1 Longacres
Bagshot, Surrey
pounds 20.5m (pounds 18m)
2 Bents Garden & Home
Glazebury, Cheshire
pounds 20m (pounds 16.294m)
3 Barton Grange
Preston, Lancashire
pounds 16.5m (pounds 13.6m)
4 Woodcote Green Garden Centre & Nurseries
Wallington, Surrey
Est pounds 16m (pounds 14.8m)
Sold to Wyevale Garden Centres in January. Phil Barnden remains general manager. Garden Retail & Garden Industry Awards 2015 large garden centre winner. HW estimate.
5 Webbs
Wychbold, Worcestershire
pounds 13.8m (pounds 12.76m)
Now run by Ed Webb, the garden centre is part of the Tillington buying group. Facilities on site include a play area for children and a picnic area.
6 Scotsdales Garden Centre
Cambridge
pounds 13.4m (pounds 12m)
Another Garden Retail & Garden Industry Awards winner, this family garden centre run by Caroline Owen has served Cambridge and district gardeners for more than 40 years. Now has two satellite sites at Horningsea and Fordham that turnover pounds 3m each, taking the group to more than pounds 20m. Scotsdales is also part of Tillington...