In brief

The Garden Centre Group, the largest group in the garden trade of Great Britain with 140 locations, has changed their name and will in future be known as Wyevale Garden Centres. The group was already known under the brand name Wyevale until 2009.

The e-commerce market for garden products will more than double by 2018 in Great Britain. This was forecast by the market research institute AMA Research. They estimate the market volume for 2013 at GBP 308 mio. Thus, the Internet as a sales channel, had a total market share of eight per cent in the British garden sector. According to AMA’s forecast, the online garden market should increase to GBP 700 mio by 2018, achieving a 15 per cent share of the British garden market sector.

The Austrian garden centre operator Bellaflora will now also exit the peat business. Last year already, the company removed synthetic chemical pesticides and herbicides from the shelves. Now it will at first sell less peat and garden soil with peat and then gradually completely remove these products from their product range, as was announced by the CEO, Alois Wichtl: “As the biggest garden centre and as the first Austrian company we are dropping out of the peat business”, he said.