Worlds End Garden Centre founder remembered by friends in the industry.
In 2009 Jim Bone, contracted a life-threatening illness that he battled with incredible stoicism, but finally succumbed to on August 17, 2010. A larger than life character, who was at the vanguard of garden centre retailing from the 1960s, Mr Bone helped to construct the independent garden centre industry we have today.

Born in Edmonton, the youngest of six children, on May 4, 1942, Jim's first retail experience was helping his mum and dad run their fruit stall on Edmonton Green. After school, he teamed up with his brother Len and started running several fruit stalls in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, eventually moving to Aylesbury in 1965.

By 1970, the brothers had made enough money to buy a dahlia nursery with a small garden shop attached to it. They named the site, which was located just outside Aylesbury, World's End and sold fruit, vegetables and flowers from stalls.
As the business grew, Jim and his brother began building bespoke shops and greenhouses for plant and garden sundry sales... and the World's End garden centre that we know today was born.
Whilst Len was the more operational of the two, Jim focused more on the buying and marketing side of the business. He attended the first ever Glee exhibition in 1975 and, I believe, every single Glee thereafter. He also regularly attended trade shows in Germany and the USA and was a frequent international buyer of garden furniture and Christmas ranges.

Consequently Jim is now not only well known in UK circles - he has also been a terrific ambassador and is equally known, liked and respected by many manufacturers abroad.
But the respect extended to Jim was not confined to his vendors. His team of employees loved him too and would do whatever was necessary to make the business 'sing'. Staff turnover was virtually non-existent and customers visiting the centre would always leave having experienced exemplary service. And as for the customers... Jim seemed to know each and every one of them on first name terms!

The garden centre Jim and Len created at World's End was so successful that inevitably it attracted some very flattering offers from potential buyers. Eventually, in July 1987 they received and accepted a multi-million pound offer that was too good to refuse - one of the very first such deals in our industry. The new owners, the Economic Forestry Group plc., recognised how valuable Jim would be to the ongoing success of their business and offered him a main board directorship with specific responsibility for World's End as well as their other retail interests. Jim remained with EFG and World's End for approximately six years following the sale and helped EFG eventually achieve a profitable exit when the garden centre was sold on to Wyevale in another mega-deal.

But Jim did not rest on his laurels. With part of his proceeds from the EFG sale, he went on to purchase two more garden centres for his daughters Rose (Yorkshire Garden Centre at Gilberdyke) and Joanne (Berkshire Garden Centre at Langley). Both of these acquisitions have turned out well, proving conclusively that successful garden centre retailing can be inherited in the genes.

In closing, Jim began his career when garden centres largely did not exist as we know them today. He responded to the opportunity presented to him with incredible flair and entrepreneurship and fashioned his dahlia nursery and fruit/veg stall into one of the UK's finest garden centres.

He is survived by his wife Dorothy and children.