Garden centre sold to Dobbies in £3.8m deal

Apr 9 2008

SCOTLAND'S leading garden centre, Sandyholm at Crossford, has been sold to Dobbies Garden Centres in a multi-million pound deal.

Dobbies, whose majority shareholder is Tesco, has acquired the business and assets of Sandyholm Garden Centre and Coffee Shop for £8 million, plus stock at valuation.

Sandyholm has been voted Scotland’s best garden centre, and one of the UK’s top 10 centres, for the last four years.

Dobbies have bought a freehold retail space of around 36,000 sq ft on a nine-acre site fronting the national Clyde Valley Tourist Route.

The original centre was created over 40 years ago by the Warnock family. David Warnock and his sister, Dorothy, took over the Centre from their parents William and Anne in 1999 and grew it to a successful business, boasting over 100 staff, sales of £5.8 million and profits of £1.1million.

They are expected to remain at the centre, on a consultancy basis, for the next few months.

David Warnock commented: “We’re all absolutely thrilled with the prospect of Dobbies Sandyholm. It’s a real meeting of minds as Dobbies have a very similar ethos to us. At Sandyholm, great customer service, quality products and value for money have always been our priorities and now as part of the Dobbies 'family', those same values will remain as important as ever.”

He said it was now time to concentrate on other business interests, but they were delighted with the deal.

He went on: “We've worked very hard building the business and, in recent years, have had quiet a few approaches. However, we feel Dobbies are the perfect owners.

“We also feel, as an independent company, we’ve taken Sandyholm as far as we could. Dobbies can now grow it further. It also means our very talented staff will have greater opportunities within a larger group.”

The jobs of the 100 staff at Crossford are expected to be safe, with Dobbies finance director Sharon Brown saying that the company did not anticipate any staff changes.

The acquisition of Sandyholm gives Dobbies their first store in South Lanarkshire and brings Dobbies portfolio up to 24 garden centres UK-wide, 12 of which are in Scotland.

James Barnes, Dobbies chief executive, added: “We’re delighted to welcome Sandyholm into the Dobbies Scottish portfolio. Dobbies Sandyholm will bring together the best of both worlds; working collaboratively with the staff at this much-loved garden centre we’ll combine our skills and enthusiasm to inspire even more customers. Dobbies look forward to working with Sandyholm and learning from each other. The Dobbies Sandyholm team will offer our customers all the benefits they would expect from two well respected names coming together - along with the warm Sandyholm welcome.”