Two acquisitions take garden centre group to 44 sites and £350m turnover
Two acquisitions inside a month have taken Blue Diamond to 44 garden centres, and add £18million to group turnover, which stood at £330m last year.
Fosseway Garden Centre in Gloucestershire is the latest site to join the group, with Blue Diamond taking over the freehold of around nine acres from Friday, 5 May, following on from the acquisition of Northamptonshire’s Beckworth Emporium in April.
The Blue Diamond group has given considerable thought to its greeting card displays over the last few years, as testified by it winning The Retas Best Garden Centre Retailer of greeting cards in 2021 and 2019, and it has just been named as a finalist in this year’s honours.
Company md Alan Roper said he was attracted by Fosseway’s good footprint, which includes a play barn, restaurant, and electric vehicle charging points as well as a large retail space selling gifts and greetings, along with a population profile that fits Blue Diamond, adding: “It is a good template to do what we do.”
Fosseway was established by Tim and Gill Godwin on arable land near Moreton-In-Marsh they bought for farming, and has been a member of Choice Marketing, the garden centre buying and marketing combine, since 2017.
Meanwhile the deal for Beckworth, in Mears Ashby, was confirmed last month as the first of two acquisitions for Blue Diamond in 2023. It was opened in 2008 by David Brown on a then-derelict site and obtained planning permission in 2020 for renovations and to build a new events centre with increased parking.
Alan added: “The centre has a total turnover of £9.3m of which over 60% is restaurant and food related – £3.5m catering, £2m food sales – which we will develop further whilst significantly growing the horticultural and gardening sales. A Blue Diamond clothing department will be added next year.
“Despite the challenges faced when buying a business built on an owner’s passion, I will make it my mission to keep the heart that makes Beckworth a unique and very special business beating strongly.”
