Features

Honeyfield’s is helping retailers deliver best practice advice to their wild bird-loving customers by providing eight top tips, from their resident wild bird expert Simon Smethurst, who is head of sales at Honeyfield’s.  “We hope the tips will help retailers engage with their customers about best practice choices for wild bird feeding at this time of year,” said Simon. “It should be a triple win: good for the customer, good for the birds and good for sales within the category.” Wild birds face cold temperatures, habitat loss, and reduced food availability during the winter. Good quality…

As part of its ongoing accelerated growth journey, Mr Fothergill’s Seeds Ltd has entered a multi-year partnership with Metro Supply Chain Inc., a leading international logistics and supply chain solutions provider. Following an extensive selection process, Metro Supply Chain will manage Fothergill’s “warehousing and pick, pack, and dispatch” operations across the seeds, tools, and accessories business. This partnership will be pivotal for future development and cover both the business-to-business and direct-to-consumer operations, with a combined annual retail value of over £50 million.…

With the 2025 gardening season fast approaching, AMES Tools is urging retailers to secure stock now to meet the increased demand that springtime brings. With gardeners preparing to complete post-winter tidy-ups and others kickstarting their gardening aspirations, it’s vital that retailers have the right tools available to support them. Spring marks the beginning of the gifting season, with key dates like Easter, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day inspiring shoppers to find the perfect presents for their loved ones. Garden tools continue to be a popular choice for gardening enthusiasts,…

GIMA is proud to announce an exclusive virtual event, ‘In Conversation with Dobbies’, taking place on 5th February. Open exclusively to GIMA members, this session offers an opportunity to hear directly from Dobbies’ senior leadership team on plans for the future.  This must-attend event will provide valuable insights into Dobbies’ plans for the upcoming season and beyond. The senior team will share how they are responding to evolving market dynamics, fostering stronger supplier relationships, and driving collaborative growth across the supply chain. Free of charge for GIMA members and hosted…

A STRATEGIC marketer and sustainable marketing consultant has been revealed as one of the keynote speakers at the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) annual conference (January 26 until 29, 2025). Co-founder and podcast host at Can Marketing Save the Planet Ltd, Michelle Carvill, will be presenting on the Tuesday, January 28, of the event. GCA Chairman, Will Blake says: “Michelle looks set to be an interesting and inspiring speaker that I am sure our members will find highly informative and useful. In 2021, she was recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Inspirational Businesswomen. Prior to…

Taking place from 2–5 February at the NEC Birmingham, Spring Fair 2025 is retail’s most trusted trade event, celebrating 75 years of shaping the industry. With over 1 million products to explore, it’s the go-to event for retailers and shop owners looking to refresh their ranges and discover the latest trends. This year’s show is packed with newness, featuring over 400 new-to-show exhibitors, exciting features, and inspiring stage content from big names in retail and leading companies. Whether you’re a returning visitor or attending for the first time, there’s more to discover than ever…

GIMA – the trade association representing over 180 garden suppliers and manufacturers – is delighted to announce its AGM & Day Conference for 2025. Taking place on Tuesday, 25th March 2025, at Radcliffe House, University of Warwick, this event promises a day of networking, industry-leading insights, and discussions on how businesses can harness the power of AI to drive efficiency and growth. The event will begin with the Annual General Meeting, exclusively for fully paid-up members, followed by a dynamic Day Conference open to all delegates. The Day Conference will feature an address…

The home and garden retail segment can often prove to be a challenging one for eCommerce businesses. Up until recently, consumers couldn’t image making home and garden purchases online; and for many, it is still the case. Even if products were ordered online, the transactions themselves were only made once the customer had been in-store to get a feel for what they were buying. Home and garden retail is unique. They can be expensive, highly personal purchases that are made infrequently at household-level. As a result, customer journeys are often long and fragmented - weighing up a range of…

Kersten Capella the WYEVALE Nurseries’ Sales and Marketing Director is to speak about her industry experience and leadership role at the inspirational ‘Women in Horticulture’ event on Thursday, November 14 at Horticulture House in Oxfordshire. Joining Fran Barnes the CEO of the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), on the podium, Kersten will also be helping to fundraise for the horticultural sector charity Perennial. Kersten explains: “It’s an honour to have been invited to take part in this inspirational event on Thursday, November 14 at Horticulture House in Oxfordshire. “The…

This year, we have added over 45 new individual varieties to our pictorial range including vegetables, flowers, herbs and organic seeds from our sister company, Suffolk Herbs for the 2025 Season. As well as this, we have also added 2 brand new stand collections. One includes our new Starter Collection Packs, and the other stand just for Sunflowers! Our new starter pack collection features 10 different starter seed packets. Each packet includes 5 individual foils of seeds, giving customers a variety of seeds to sow. Our collection packs still include growing instructions for each variety on…

Hyve Group the Glee organiser, have announced that eBay will be a sponsor of the 50th anniversary of the event, which will take place at the NEC, Birmingham from 10th - 12th September. The new partnership with the UK’s premier garden trade exhibition will see more businesses able to take advantage of selling on eBay, which is one of the world’s largest hubs for SME trading. eBay seen as world-renowned and trustworthy is one of the largest online marketplaces, with a booming sector worth more than £137 billion last year, and expected to reach over £152 billion in 2024. eBay is ideally suited…

Johnston & Jeff PREMIUM bird feed manufacturer extends its range of products to help with wildlife care for a larger variety of wildlife. The company based in Yorkshire, has been supplying high-end wild bird seed for almost 150 years, has introduced a hedgehog mix dedicated to helping to reduce the decline of the species.  In addition to this, they also supply Squirrel and Chipmunk mix in a plastic-free 1.2kg bag, plus its Duck, Swan and Goose mix in a 1.5kg plastic-free bag, ensuring the blends are more portable. The company say that the new ranges will help people to be able to feed…

As the garden retail sector gets ready for Glee and buyers are busy planning their visit to the show (10th – 12th September, NEC Birmingham), it has been confirmed that Deroma - the world’s largest terracotta pot manufacturer – is making its highly anticipated return, marking an end to its three-year hiatus from exhibiting. Deroma’s return has been influenced by Glee’s new dateline, which sees the show return to a September schedule. Jonathan Price, Head of UK at Deroma, said: “The timing of Glee is now much more aligned with the sales seasonality of our core customers, making a return to…

Garden centres can now order France’s most famous soap from its exclusive new UK distributor. Marius Fabre’s Marseille soap is as emblematic of the country's southern Provence region as lavender fields and cicadas, and the all-natural and sustainable olive oil-based products are suitable for a host of daily uses in the home and garden. Palm oil-free, the 100% vegetable-based natural and biodegradable products are environmentally friendly, and the packaging is entirely recyclable.  Some of the range is also Ecocert certified and organic. With seven ranges that include everything from an…

Water fountains have surged in popularity in recent years, with consumers embracing their tranquil sounds and the added benefit of attracting wildlife to their gardens. Recognising this trend, Easy Fountain – part of the AMES UK family of brands – has responded quickly and strategically to help retailers capitalise on this growing demand. At Glee 2024, Easy Fountain will unveil an exciting new chapter in the world of water fountains, including a carefully curated range of mains powered fountains plus the brand’s first foray into solar and solar-hybrid, together meeting diverse consumer needs…

EntoGrow is a unique product that can help gardeners of all experiences and abilities care for your garden all year round. Where do we start on the benefits of EntoGrow™? There are so many, and it seems that this outstanding mealworm manure (frass) fertiliser will be well-known in UK households in the coming year. As our climate changes and growers adjust their gardening choices accordingly, the benefits of frass in helping plants deal with the stress of increased drought and the immigration of new pests will be widely acknowledged. Here, horticulturist and co-founder of EntoGrow, Emma…