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“ British Garden Centres started from humble beginnings when my father and uncle started to grow plant cuttings at their family home and sell them to passersby,” Amy opens.“ They purchased the first site in Woodthorpe next to their family home, and following its success, they decided to acquire an additional site, Brigg Garden Centre, ten years later, which is our flagship store today.
“ The pair continued to acquire stores in the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire areas, and around 2018, when Wyevale Garden Centres looked to sell its sites, we made the decision to take on a proportion of these stores. The Wyevale acquisition was a transformative milestone in our story, taking us from around 15 sites to over 50 almost overnight. We also purchased the sites just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK, so it was a scary time having to close all our stores and not knowing when they’ d reopen. Today, with 73 stores in our portfolio, we’ re the UK’ s largest garden center group by number of sites, and we’ re very much looking to carry on this growth trajectory.”
Extensive product portfolio
Indeed, the business is certainly not slowing down, with 11 acquisitions made in 2024 and the first half of 2025 alone.“ We’ re quite unique in that we’ re a central brand across all the garden centers, but we also encourage each site to maintain its individuality,” Amy explains.“ While there’ s consistency across the stores in terms of branding, pricing, and product selection, every center is slightly different and won’ t be identical to another site. The central team decides and purchases product ranges but allows each management team to decide how to merchandise products and how to run their store. It’ s a hard balance, but this approach allows us to build brand awareness while empowering our individual site managers to make their mark. Also, we always try to get new and exciting products
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