Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Gardening expert Charlie Dimmock will officially open Squire’s new garden centre at Woking in Surrey on Saturday March 17.
Charlie, who rose to fame as a co-host of BBC One garden makeover series ‘Ground Force’ and now presents BBC One’s ‘Garden Rescue’ series, will be at the garden centre all day.
Following a significant extension, Squire’s in Woking has been revamped with an ‘inspirational’ plant area complete with outdoor canopy, and a much bigger shop offering a wider choice of gardening products, gifts and furniture.
The Café Bar has also been extended and has a full waiting service for customers to order from their tables – and every Sunday in March, there will be live music from a classical guitarist between 12.30pm to 2.30pm.
The retailer said: ‘This investment is great for customers and it’s also good news for local employment, as we have doubled the amount of staff with 62 now employed, versus 30 employees last year.’
Squire’s deputy chairman Sarah Squire commented: “Our garden centre in Woking has been completely transformed, yet still remains 100% true to our horticultural heritage. A huge amount of work has gone into the redevelopment, and I want to thank everyone involved. We look forward to welcoming customers back and to meeting new customers and hearing what they think. I hope they’ll be amazed and excited like me!”
Following an official opening & tree planting ceremony with Squire’s chairman Colin Squire OBE, there will be a series activities including ‘Gardeners Question Time’ when customers can ask Charlie gardening-related questions, and a Spring Container Workshop. During this one-off session, Charlie will demonstrate planting methods and suggest which plants to pick and how to look after the container – which customers can then took home and enjoy.
Squire’s will also use the occasion to launch its ‘Grow Your Own Chips’ competition, which will run all week with schools across the south-east at each of Squire’s garden centres.
At Woking, Charlie will show local schoolchildren how to grow potatoes in pots. The children will take their pots home to see if they can grow more potatoes than Charlie, then come back to Squire’s in June to get their potatoes weighed and turned into chips in the Cafe Bar.
Squire’s Garden Centres was Highly Commended in the Best Multiple Garden Centre Retailer category of The Housewares Innovation Awards 2018. With over 80 years of horticultural experience, the family-owned garden centre group operates 15 centres across Middlesex, north and west London, Surrey, Berkshire and Sussex.
