A glasshouse of its own

The Swiss DIY market leader Coop Bau+Hobby now boasts a standalone garden centre following the opening of the outlet in Volketswil, which is designed completely as a sales greenhouse, in mid-March.However, one could say that Coop Bau+Hobby still has a stand­alone garden centre, because the new building in Volketswil in the Zurich area is soon to be connected by a roofed arcade passage to its main store just a short distance away in the Volkiland shopping mall. This will enable its customers to move back and forth between the two related stores without having to brave the elements."We would have liked to add the garden centre directly onto the existing Coop Bau+Hobby store," says Christoph Theler, who heads the Bau+Hobby division within the retail group. But the development plan, which is due to be changed, still provides for a fire engine access road. So as not to have to wait any longer, a bird in the hand was deemed preferable to two in the bush, and so the free-standing garden centre was erected on the car park in front of the store.This made it possible to realise a retail area of slightly more than 1 600 m² - a size that puts the new greenhouse in the larger third of garden centres operated by the Coop. The warm and cold house are of roughly the same dimensions at 327 m² and 350 m² respectively, with the most space devoted to the covered sales area extending over 836 m². The outdoor area is 100 m² in size.With its new garden paradise, as the Coop terms its garden centre, the company is staking its claim once more. "Our goal is to be the number one in gardening," says Christoph Theler.That was one of the reasons why the retail group entered into a cooperative agreement six years ago with the German garden centre operator and European market leader Dehner. This collaboration is evident from several details of the new garden centre in Volketswil too. For example, there is a range of specially bred plants and species in various plant assortments that are offered as premium products.On the one hand, the plants for sale are supplied by the company's partner Dehner, which has an extensive production capacity for high-quality goods at its so-called gardening settlement in Rain am Lech. On the other hand, Coop prefers to buy plants in its home country of Switzerland too and works with five to ten Swiss nurseries depending on the range. "The Coop backs Swiss products wherever possible," explains Christoph Theler.