Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The Barton Grange Group has sold its Bolton garden centre to the Garden Centre Group.
Owned and run by the Topping family from Preston, Barton Grange Garden Centre celebrated 50 years in business in May.
Guy Topping, managing director of Barton Grange Garden Centre, said: “The decision to sell Bolton was many months in the making. But we finally concluded that the best way forward for our business was to concentrate our efforts on the further development of our larger garden centre near Preston.”
He continued: “I have been personally involved with Barton Grange Bolton from the very beginning, even helping to build the garden centre. I would like to thank all the staff at Bolton and the many loyal customers who have contributed to its success during our years there. The business is now well placed to build on that success with the backing of the Garden Centre Group.”
Guy added that Barton Grange will now focus its efforts on developing and continuing to improve its award-winning garden centre at Brock, just north of Preston, which has a 480sq m Cook Shop, accounting for about 10% of total indoor heated retail space.
The Cook Shop at Barton Grange in Brock was named as one of the prestigious Global Innovation Award (GIA) winners of 2011/12.
The GIA programme, organised by The International Home + Housewares Show and International Housewares Association in the US, annually honours outstanding housewares and homewares retailers from around the globe.
The garden centre at Brock was officially opened in June 2008 by HRH the Princess Royal. In January it was awarded the title of ‘Destination Garden Centre of the Year 2013’ from the Garden Centre Association.
This is the second year running that the business has scooped this accolade. It also won the award for having the best disabled facilities, the best catering, the best farm shop, the best garden care department, and the best Christmas displays.
The Garden Centre Group operates 130 garden centres in England and Wales and employs more than 5,000 people. Each garden centre is separately branded. The largest is Bridgemere Nursery & Garden World in Cheshire; the smallest is at Carmarthen.
Other brands include Blooms, Sanders Garden World, Old Barn Nursery & Garden Centre, Jack’s Patch Nursery & Garden Centre, Wyevale, Heighley Gate Nursery & Garden Centre, Country Gardens and Woodlands Nursery.
