Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The Garden Centre Association (GCA) revealed the winners of its ‘Best in Area’ garden centre at four awards presentation evenings held last month.
GCA chairman Peter Burks said: “We would like to congratulate all our members who picked up awards.”
Results for the North Thames region, the North East and the North West were announced on July 16; the Midlands on July 17; and Wales and the West on July 18.
Winners of the Best Garden Centre were as follows for the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) and Garden Centre (GC) categories:
Winners for the North Thames region were Squires Garden Centre, Shepperton (GC) in Middlesex and Poplars Garden Centre (DGC) in Bedfordshire.
Winners for the North East were Cowell’s Garden Centre (GC) and Armitage’s Pennine Garden Centre (DGC) in West Yorkshire.
Winners for the North West were Fron Goch Garden Centre (GC) in North Wales and Barton Grange Garden Centre (DGC) in Lancashire.
Winners for the Midlands were Planters Garden Centre, Tamworth (GC) and Webbs Garden Centre Wychbold (DGC) in Worcestershire.
The Wales and the West winners were Endsleigh Garden & Leisure (DGC) in Devon and The Old Railway Line Garden Centre (GC) in Powys.
Other awards presented included Best Plant Area, Best Customer Service, Creativity and Innovation, Best Indoor Lifestyle, Best Outdoor Living and Best Restaurant.
The awards are decided by annual inspections, which take place at all GCA garden centres. Garden centres have no warning when their inspections will take place and do not have the option to turn away the inspector.
The Best Garden Centre and Best Destination Garden Centre awards go to members that scored the highest overall mark in the area in their annual inspections.
The three top scoring centres overall, nationally, in both the Destination Garden Centre and Garden Centre categories will be re-inspected before the titles of Garden Centre of the Year and Destination Garden Centre of the Year are announced at the GCA annual conference taking place from January 26-29, 2014.
Ian Boardman, senior GCA standards inspector, said: “The area awards are always great events: full of anticipation and excitement. Winning an award is a great achievement in itself and also a brilliant tool for publicity. Congratulations to all those who picked up awards.”
The GCA represents nearly 200 garden centres nationwide.
