One to Watch – GTN visits a new centre in Southend

The New Year is traditionally a time for predictions and one we can be sure of is that Scott’ s of Southend, which has been open for less than two years, has an exciting future ahead.

Just a couple of miles from Southend Airport is a new garden centre, Scott’s of Southend, which opened in May 2021 during an uncertain climate. Despite this, the business has gone from strength-tostrength riding on the wave of the millions of people attracted to gardening as a hobby through the covid pandemic. This upward trend continues as more exciting plans for expansion are in the pipeline helping to make Scott’s of Southend an asset within the region and a horticultural hub for the local gardening community.

The new garden centre continues the site’s long horticultural history. For the previous three decades it was a wholesale nursery producing bedding, shrubs and trees, but when Scott Bird, owner of the EAF Group Ltd, was looking for premises to expand his animal feeds business he could see the 11 acre site had potential. He bought it in 2018. “The site was certainly bigger than I wanted but I could see I could do something with it.”

Scott Bird

The first few years were taken up with securing planning permissions and shaping the site so it was suitable for retailing. By March 2020 Alan Marsh, Shop Manager, had come on board bringing valuable experience from his years working at nearby Thurrock Garden Centre. Timing, however, was against them. Progress was hampered because of lockdown but with glasshouse space made watertight thanks to a new roof, they were able to welcome the first customers in May 2021. From then on the pace has been rapid with office space and a table service restaurant opening just seven months later bringing the garden centre to 4300sqm.

Being a new centre meant the customer base had to be built up from zero. Darren Franks, Head of Operations, says word of mouth and social media have been vital in spreading news the garden centre had opened.

The range of gifting and toys continues to expand to fit the demographic of young families and with the geography of the site being just less than three miles from the coast.

Stock of equestrian supplies offer another point of difference.

“It’s really exciting. We talk about growing our following and if you look at our social media it’s amazing how positive the feedback is.

“We now have a huge and loyal following and I want to retain that loyalty. We have an existing gardening club and haven’t really tapped into its potential, but I want to expand it with an online app and special offers exclusive to garden club members to reward their loyalty.”

Events have proved enormously popular and more

are planned for 2023 as a way to bring in people who are curious or might not otherwise visit a garden centre. Alan Marsh says: “We’ve now held our second Halloween event and in 2022 we sold 10,000 pumpkins from our Pumpkin Barn.” They were all one variety and talks with a local grower have already taken place to secure a range of colours and sizes for 2023. Halloween-themed afternoon tea was an added attraction in October which also contributed to a doubling of overall sales that month.

Christmas in 2021 was a relatively quiet affair but in 2022 the garden centre upped its game with an ambitious 45 stall indoor Victorian Market. Created by the team it was a resounding success with takings up more than 80% boosted by Christmas lunches and afternoon teas. Says Alan: “We visited a few garden centres near to us to look at Christmas displays and heads were spinning at the thought of all we could do here. The potential is massive.”

Darren is also looking at expanding product lines. “We recently started to offer food lines and this has been really successful and we are expanding fashion and houseplants,” he says. “I understand concessions work for a lot of garden centres but we are going to stick with doing things ourselves so we have control of what we offer our customers.” Darren explains he sees Scott’s of Southend as having an independent offering and, like the table service restaurant and Victorian Christmas Market, has scope to offer a point of difference. “We want to be more local, more friendly and more interactive with our customers,” he says.

Alan Marsh brings his experience to the plantaria.

Overall, the business has grown by 50% in 2022 compared with 2021 but this is due to the novelty of it being a new centre. I am very excited about the journey we are on with the garden centre, we have lots of plans, some of which are long term which we hope to complete by 2025. We are introducing new events to the timetable such as our Easter farm event, great new product lines and our exciting new Food Hall area.”“We been brave this year,” says Alan, “but in 2023 we can be braver still.”

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert helped to celebrate the official opening of the Scott’s of Southend Victorian Christmas Market with local mayor, Scott Bird and members of the garden centre team.