Garden centres need to innovate constantly, senior industry figures at a bootcamp style workshop reveal.
Attendees praised the efforts of retail consultant John Stanley who challenged them to think deeply about 'customers, their centres and their teams'.

The HTA's commercial director Andrew Maxted said: "John's approach to marketing and merchandising is inspirational and we plan to roll this out this through a series of events and good practice guides which will be available to members over the winter months."

Held in Sheffield at the end of August, representatives from the HTA retail group were joined by other garden retailers, growers and manufactured garden goods suppliers.

The workshop combined presentations with a visit to nearby Ferndale Garden Centre.

The event also had an international flavour with guests from Denmark's Planteriget and The Arboretum in the Republic of Ireland.

The bootcamp was a precursor to a session at the HTA conference in Chester on October 15 and 16 where John Stanley will share new ideas and new thinking on generation marketing and global retail best practice with conference delegates.

Contact Cecilia Slinn on 01686 668256 or email hta@slinnmccarthy.com for more details.