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Wyevale for sale.

Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
in The potting shed
I noticed Wyevale and Homebase are both up for sale. 
I went into Wyevale on Monday as they had  a "Sale" !!!!! 
Eucomis plants ( I bought packs of 3 bulbs in Morrisons, 3 packs for £5 ) £9 each.
Cannas £15 , admittedly buy one get one free, but at this time of year they should be selling them off. 
Hydrangea Paniculata, admittedly nice plants with a good 8 stems, but £42 each?? Really?
Let's hope they go with the option of selling off individual sites and nice , local folk buy them who are real gardeners and not just "money" people.
Devon.
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  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    I don't think "private equity " firms are the best folk to run garden centres either. ;)
    Devon.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I went into a nearby garden centre that was taken over by wyevale a couple of years ago.
    I took one look at the youvegottabejoking prices and carried on past it to my usual haunt.
    Unfortunately a lot of these centres are on land that would make prime building land. I don't think we can count on them becoming independents again.
    This must have been a dreadful couple of years for garden centres. The bank holiday weather has not been kind either. The only way they seem to make money now is by selling Christmas tat and the like.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    I read that one site in Essex ( I think ) has a £35,000,000 price tag. Garden centre or housing?
    Am I the only person who hates "garden centres" full od "Christmas tat and the like"? I was in on on October 1st and they had their "tat" out and were playing Christmas Carols over the tannoy. I complained that 3 months of Carols was a little excessive. The girl on the counter said she was suicidal by the end of her first shift listenting to it.
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    It's probably my fault oops  there was one just up the road from where I used to work ... I was there most lunchtimes ... haven't been there since I retired .... that one'll probably go for housing ... the new Northern Distributor Road around Norwich runs near there and the Wyevale is between that and the city ... every bit of land around there seems to be going for housing ... a shame as it's surrounded by woodland ... 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    Even small privately owned nursery / garden centres are having to diversify.  One near us now has almost as much indoor space dedicated to non-gardening goods as to garden related stuff.  Another which has remained purely as a nursery is close to collapse if the state of the place is anything to go by.  A few years ago they were a thriving business but I doubt if they can compete with the prices offered by DIY sheds rather than garden centres.
    I'm afraid anybody who thinks are return to local ownership will bring back 'the good old days' of purely garden related premises is kidding themselves.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Wyevale provide valuable motivation for people to grow thier own plants. One look at their prices and boring plant range is enough to keep me planting seeds (that I buy elsewhere). I actually think their xmas range is the best thing they do. I just buy the stuff on sale in January...
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    The week before our local independent  GC changed to Wyevale, I bought some chili plants for 99p each. A week after it opened as Wyevale, £2.49. So much for "economy of scale" and "bulk buying"!!
    Devon.
  • Mark56Mark56 Posts: 1,653
    edited August 2018
    I agree whole heartedly, the prices are outrageous - £10.00/£12.00 for a 2L perennial when I can pop further along the road and get them for £4. The quality and variety of plants is also shocking, it seems they often water less than the supermarkets.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    Mark56 said:
    I agree whole heartedly, the prices are outrageous - £10.00/£12.00 for a 2L perennial when I can pop further along the road and get them for £4. The quality and variety of plants is also shocking, it seems they often water less than the supermarkets.
    Unfortunately we don't have another GC " along the road" . Even Wyevale is almost 10 miles away.
    Devon.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Our local GC is fully of tat and xmas flimflam from Oct. Who wants to walk through plastic Christmas trees for three months of the year and bear carols blasting out? But yes, I think their margins are so tight - the land they have to manage so large, their overheads so big - that tat makes more of a mark up than plants.

    One of our locals are trying to run on a skeleton staff and so most of the plants are half dead. It's part of a small chain, so I guess they have been cross-subsidizing. The land worth of both centres would run into billions, situated where they are. I suspect the local authority owns all the land, or they would have sold up decades ago.
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