MAGAZINE

Happy new year and welcome to, as I type this, a gloriously (well… quite) sunny spring! This is certainly a great time to take stock, which our friends at the Garden Centre Association (GCA) have certainly been doing. First and foremost, the leading industry body has already held its annual conference. You can find out what went on by turning to its column on page 50.

Not only that but the GCA has also released its official figures for 2025 (see News on page 6) – and they were extremely encouraging. In fact, 10 of the 13 categories recorded were up when compared to January last year, with food hall/farm shop finishing top on +15.31%. Catering came sixth on 10.07%.

This kind of positivity is clearly being felt across the industry, as the ever-expanding British Garden Centres reports growing by £9.4m, up 24% up on last year. I know this because we have interviewed the somehow-still-family-owned behemoth for our Garden Centre Catering Awards interview. Turn to page 10 to find out how it managed to win the Group Award for the second year running.

If you think you have got what it takes to stop – or join – them in the autumn, I can exclusively reveal that our 2026 awards will be launching extremely soon. Keep an eye on gardencentrecateringawards.co.uk – or we will tell how to enter free of charge in our next issue…