THE GARDEN Centre Association (GCA) yesterday (Monday, July 20, 2015) unveiled its winners for the North Thames region during a presentation at Perrywood Garden Centre & Nurseries.
The title of Best Garden Centre (GC) went to Sunshine Garden Centre and Burston Rose & Garden Centre took home the award for Best Destination Garden Centre (DGC).
Iain Wylie, Chief Executive of the GCA, said: “I’d like to say a huge congratulations to all of our members who took home awards during the first regional awards meeting. A massive ‘thank you’ also goes to Perrywood Garden Centre & Nurseries for hosting such a fantastic evening.
“Other awards included Best Customer Service and Best Environment and Community, which both went to Burston Rose & Garden Centre.
“Squires Garden Centre – Twickenham scooped the award for Best Creativity and Innovation and the Most Improved site was won by Hilltop Garden Centre.”
Presenting her findings during the event was inspector Liz Hutson.
The full results for the North Thames region GCA area awards are as follows for the GC and DGC categories:
Best Garden Centre: Sunshine Garden Centre (GC) and Burston Rose & Garden Centre (DGC)
Best Customer Service: Burston Rose & Garden Centre
Best Environment and Community: Burston Rose & Garden Centre
Best Creativity and Innovation: Squires Garden Centre – Twickenham
Most Improved: Hilltop Garden Centre
Best Restaurant: Thurrock Garden Centre (GC) and Frosts at Woburn Sands (DGC)
Garden Products Retailer: Squires Garden Centre – Shepperton (GC) and Poplars Nursery Garden Centre (DGC)
Best Indoor Lifestyle: Squires Garden Centre – Shepperton (GC) and The Burford Garden Company (DGC)
Best Outdoor Living: Sunshine Garden Centre (GC) and The Van Hage Garden Company – Great Amwell (DGC)
The awards are decided by the results of the annual inspections, which take place at all GCA garden centres. Garden centres have no advance warning about when their inspection will take place and they do not have the option to turn away the inspector.
The Best Garden Centre and Best Destination Garden Centre awards went to the members that scored the highest overall mark in the area in their annual inspections.
The top scoring centres overall, nationally, in both the Destination Garden Centre and Garden Centre categories will be re-inspected before the titles of Garden Centre of the Year and Destination Garden Centre of the Year are announced at the GCA annual conference taking place in January 2016.
Iain added: “We are really looking forward to the remaining awards meetings taking place this week.
“Stratford Garden Centre in Clifford Chambers, Stratford-Upon-Avon, will host the Midlands regional award meeting tonight from 5pm and the regional award meeting for the South Thames area will take place at Haskins Garden Centre in West End, Southampton on Wednesday, July 22 with inspector Andy Campbell in attendance.”
The GCA represents nearly 200 garden centres nationwide. Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.
For further information, please call 0118 930 8918. Alternatively, please visit www.gca.org.uk, log on to www.facebook.com/pages/GardenCentreAssociationorfollow the organisation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GC_Association.
