Essential reading for retailers and suppliers in the home improvement market

Latest News

Wickes extends TalkSport sponsorship

Wickes has renewed its sponsorship with TalkSport, the world's biggest sports radio station, for another year. 
16 September 2013

Garden Centre Group acquires Garden & Leisure

The Garden Centre Group has acquired the Garden & Leisure Group from Louis Delhaize, which also owns leading French garden centre group Truffaut. 
16 September 2013

GCA announces the venue for its 2014 conference

The Garden Centre Association (GCA) has revealed the location of its next annual conference and the winners of its 'guess the venue competition'. 
13 September 2013

Soaring sales at Homebase in Q2 this summer

Home Retail Group has reported sales at Homebase in Q2 rose by 9.3% to £400m and like-for-like sales climbed 11%, compared to just 1.4% in Q1 of this year. It's being reported as the retailer's strongest performance in over a decade. 
13 September 2013

Next plans to open 11 more Home and Garden stores

Next has revealed that it has planning permission to open 11 more of its large format Fashion, Home and Garden stores, as it reports robust sales figures for the first half of this year. 
12 September 2013

John Lewis boasts “strong first-half trading performance” this year

In the first six months of this year, the John Lewis Partnership achieved a "robust" sales growth with gross sales recorded at £4.73bn, a rise of 7.3% against the same period last year. The company's profit took a blow, however, due to a large payout of missed holiday payments. 
12 September 2013

Scotsdales in talks to buy Notcutts Cambridge centre

Notcutts has announced that it is in talks to sell its Horningsea, near Cambridge, garden centre to Scotsdales. 
11 September 2013

Speedy launches new superstore in Liverpool

Speedy, the provider of equipment rental and support services to the construction industry, has consolidated its three Liverpool stores for the launch of a new superstore in the city. 
11 September 2013

Sunshine in Q2 helps lift Kingfisher's H1 results

The heatwave in recent months gave Kingfisher's businesses the boost it needed after a difficult first quarter and resulted in a fairly flat performance across the board. 
11 September 2013

Entry to 'best-street' competition now closed

Entry to Cultivation Street, the nationwide competition launched by television gardener David Domoney to find Britain's best floral street, is now closed. 
11 September 2013

1m more households suffering financial squeeze

Consumer confidence is on the up - but far more households are worried now about their finances than they were a year ago. 
10 September 2013

Screwfix launches trade and DIY show

Screwfix has launched its first show dedicated to trade and DIY, 'Screwfix Live', with more than 120 suppliers exhibiting at Farnborough Five this month. 
10 September 2013

New Poundland distribution centre will underpin growth

Poundland has been given the go-ahead to build a new-state-of-the-art distribution centre in Harlow, Essex. 
9 September 2013

Redditch B&Q robber causes £50,000-worth of damage

A Worcestershire B&Q store suffered tens of thousands of pounds' worth of damage during a burglary last week. 
9 September 2013

Century-old Solihull ironmonger's closes down

A West Midlands ironmonger's has closed its doors for the last time, having been trading for more than 100 years. 
9 September 2013

Homebase launches discount co-buy website

Homebase has launched an innovative online shopping initiative offering customers deals on specially selected products, the final price being determined by the number of people who sign up to the deal. 
9 September 2013

Fermoy's Garden Centre expansion plans get under way

Multi-award-winning Devon garden centre Fermoy's has kick-started plans for a major re-development and expansion of its business. 
6 September 2013

Garden centre calls time after roundabout kills trade

The owner of a Cheshire garden centre on the brink of losing both her business and her home because of a new roundabout has described the situation as "heartbreaking". 
6 September 2013

GIMA to launch supplier/buyer 'speed dating' at Glee

Exhibitors at next week's Glee will be able to book a 10-minute 'speed dating' slot with one of a range of buyers, thanks to a new GIMA initiative. 
6 September 2013

Garden Centre Group buys two new garden centres

The Garden Centre Group has acquired Cheddar and Lechlade Garden Centres from the Park Garden Centres company in the west country. This now brings the total number of the Group's outlets to 132. 
5 September 2013
*

Most read stories