Mail order group completes acquisition of Garden Centre Online for £0.13m.
Hosted at www.gardencentreonline.co.uk, the website sells gardening and hardware products, ranging from grow your own and outdoor buildings to DIY, garden furniture and barbecues, and pet care.

Flying Brands, which operates Flying Flowers and mail order gardening business Gardening Direct, is expected to pay £0.13m for the internet business.

Chief executive Steven Cook commented: "The acquisition of Garden Centre Online is another example of our strategy of acquiring businesses in areas that are complementary to our existing product range and that enable us to leverage our growing customer base. It will increase further our online sales and we look forward to being able to offer our existing customers a wide range of great value-for-money hardware products."

The mail order company trades in three divisions - gifts, garden and entertainment. In 2005 it acquired Garden Bird Supplies, which now trades alongside Gardening Direct. It acquired Silverminds Direct the same year, which was then merged with Listen2Books to form the Listen2 brand, selling audio books, CDs and DVDs.