Garden Centre Catering Awards winner profile

The owners acquired their first garden centre at Tong in Bradford in 2015 and, with significant investment, transformed the tired catering offer into destination dining. The business became the Yorkshire Garden Centre Group in 2022 and now runs six centres.

The bespoke menus change with the seasons at all of the sites. Each restaurant also creates its own daily/weekly specials using seasonal food to suit the customer demographic and preferences. They plan to introduce more vegan and vegetarian options to the menu and use signage to raise awareness that these are planet-friendly options.

The Yorkshire Garden Centre Group says it cares passionately about how it does business and is proud to run a robust Climate and Community commitment. This details its pathway to sustainability, the active role it plays in the local community and the caring culture the owners have created for the team.

An integral part of the initiative is the £10,000 Kindness Pot that was introduced in 2022, which was designed to help the team make a meaningful impact on local causes and initiatives. Each member of the team and five directors can submit a’ kindness request’ to support a charity, group, cause or community initiative that means a lot to them. So far, the pot has donated £10,650 to support almost 200 team-nominated causes, including delivering planting workshops to school groups, and giving time, fruit trees and wildflower seeds to support the creation of biodiverse corridors throughout Otley.

The Tong, Tingley, Otley and Bingley sites are currently working with the Carbon Literacy Project to train their teams about sustainable practices. This makes Yorkshire the first garden centre group to accredit its own Carbon Literacy Training that equips its teams with the climate knowledge, tools and motivation to reduce carbon impacts both at home and at work. The plan is to roll this initiative out to two newly-acquired sites. All team members will now receive sustainability training as part of their induction.

All leftover food waste is converted into renewable energy. In 2023, this generated 8654.85 kWh of renewable energy – enough to power the average home for over two years!

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