A number of garden centres - from multiples The Garden Centre Group and Dobbies to independents Wentworth and Webbs - recently played host to a nationwide Chevrolet promotion, giving up two car parking spaces and cashing in on the extra interest from customers.
Chevrolet initially launched a garden centre promotion back in the spring, and after seeing successful results, decided to roll the initiative out across national garden centres in December. On December 15, 40 garden centres hosted dealerships, including Blue Diamond, Klondyke/Strikes, Notcutts, Hilliers, Palmers and Pughs.

Hilliers Garden Centres business development manager Tim Mason said: "We hosted a Chevrolet promotion at a number of our garden centres in December after interest from Promotional Space.

"External promotions work well for us as they can be easy to accommodate and often fit with what our customers may want to see."

The rent which the garden centres provided was supported by increased marketing in the run up to the start of the promotions, according to garden centre concessions expert First Franchise. This meant extra footfall, and free advertising for the site owners.

Pughs Garden Centre owner Graham Pugh called the promotion "a quick win" and added: "the cars sit well in our display areas without causing any issue to parking and they often advertise in local press to say they are coming."

The dealership concessions are organised by Promotional Space, which said more than 300 garden centres hosted short-term promotions both internally and externally last year. Following the difficult trading year, even more are expected to sign up in 2013.