Sir Tom's garden centres see sales grow by 20%

WYEVALE Garden Centres, which was last year snapped up by a consortium led by Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter, enjoyed a bumper start to the Bank Holiday weekend, seeing sales rise 20 per cent.

The firm, which has 120 stores, said the sunny weather and its revamped product ranges had pushed sales higher.

A further strong performance today is expected to help boost the company well ahead of its eight per cent annual target rise in underlying sales. Chief executive Barry Stevenson said the restructuring of the chain was working well in its first year under private equity ownership. He said: "All the hard work reinventing the business seems to have paid off.

"We took over a business that had not performed for three to four years. It needed surgery. We have improved stock availability, dramatically improved service."

Like-for-like sales were up by a fifth on Friday and Saturday at the chain, which added garden machinery to its offerings and has improved the tools range it sells. It has also started selling cut flowers and upgraded restaurants and coffee shops.