C+F News – Arboretum – January 2020

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Testimonial By Rob Monk:

As a large, independent garden centre we realised a manual cash register system was no longer fit for purpose and so began to search for a provider of an EPoS system that would fit our strict criteria. We were looking for a company that could provide reliable technology, an easy to use and powerful system that would offer all the data and information we needed, together with a helpful and knowledgeable support team.

We invited three of the main EPoS providers in the garden centre industry to pitch to us and were blown away by not only how easy Corby & Fellas’ WinRetail system was to use, but by the amount of data and information it could provide. The other vendors that we spoke to could, simply, not compete on the number of reports that WinRetail could provide.

We also liked the fact that we could view sales data quickly and easily on our phones and tablets, something the other providers were lacking.

It was obvious to us that Corby & Fellas is leading the way in garden centre EPoS systems and it was an easy decision to partner with them.

Since making our decision in early 2019, we have now installed their system in our restaurant, where we have seen an increase in efficiency. We have also realised that our ‘best sellers’ weren’t what we thought they were, which means that we can consider whether or not we should make changes to our existing offers; particularly relevant as we have a new restaurant due to open in 2020.

We then installed the system in one of our attractions (Wentworth Family Farm), which deals with admissions income and has a small toy shop, it gave us an insight into the information and management data we can expect to receive when we go live across the rest of the site in January 2020.

Everyone we’ve spoken to at Corby & Fellas has been friendly, helpful and extremely efficient; any

problems that we encountered have been dealt with swiftly, resolving the few teething problems that we’ve had along the way.

We look forward to working with Corby & Fellas for many more years to come.

Rob Monk

Wentworth Garden Centre

Thank you to the HTA & GIMA and all that joined Corby + Fellas at the Cultivating Retail Conference Dinner 2019. We had a fantastic and informative time. #poweredbyprogress

25% off all circus tickets on selected dates for a limited time only

Book Online Today – https://bit.ly/2pdaItI ‘Help Rudolph Shine, 23 Nov-1 Jan* at Squire’s Badshot Lea, Shepperton, Stanmore & Washington

Tickets cost £14 per person

*Dates vary by centre

Sleigh Ride VR at Busy Bee Garden Centre https://t.co/T1bNtGQmTA via @YouTube

— Corby+Fellas (@CorbyFellas) October 16, 2019

Rosebourne Shortlisted for Food and Farming Awards

ROSEBOURNE: We are delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for Retailer of the Year at the Food and Farming Awards 2019!

The Retailer of the Year Award recognises a retailer or foodservice outlet that has supported British agriculture and demonstrates a sourcing policy which favours British produce.

The Food and Farming Awards brings together the very best of the British food and farming industry. The awards recognise and reward excellence, foster innovation and create a can-do environment that inspires creativity and sharing of best practice in the industry.

The winners for each category will be announced at an awards ceremony at the House of Commons on Friday 6^th December.

Fingers crossed!

Corby + Fellas are delighted to be working with the team at Arboretum – our first European Garden Centre.

Pictured (l-r) Steven Fellas, C+F Head of Projects, Fergal Doyle, Arboretum COO and Matt Chrisostomou, C+F Head of Technical Support

Boyd Douglas-Davies appointed as HTA President

GCR Joe Wilkinson:

The AGM of the HTA, which took place at Glee, saw the appointment of Boyd Douglas-Davies as HTA President.

Boyd Douglas-Davies, CEO of Hillview Garden Centres, has taken over the Presidency from Adam Taylor of Taylors Bulbs who has come to the end of his two-year tenure in the role and moves to the role of Immediate Past PresidentBoyd has over 30 years of experience in garden retail. After training at Pershore College Boyd spent 20 years at Webbs of Wychbold during which time the business continuously grew and was recognised as one of the UK’s best garden centres. As CEO of Hillview Garden Centres he operates eight garden centres across middle England. A well-known figure in the industry Boyd is a trustee of the Greenfingers Charity and founder of Garden Re-Leaf Day.

The AGM also saw the following appointments:

• The ratification of James Barnes as Chairman.
• The ratification of the re-appointment of Bob Hewitt as a Director of the Board.

Immediate HTA Past President, Adam Taylor, comments,

“I feel extremely proud and privileged to have been able to serve the association over the last two years which has seen great change, both internally and externally. It has been an exciting, occasionally challenging, but always immensely rewarding experience and I would like to thank the HTA Board and Committees for their support, along with the team at Horticulture House. I would like to welcome Boyd to the President’s position and wish him all the best for his term of office.”

As outlined in the Annual Review there have been many accomplishments throughout the year. Mostly notably, three key areas include:

• Plant health and biosecurity – leading the plant health agenda by launching the Plant Health Management Standard and ‘Plant Healthy’ toolkit.
• Recyclable plant pots – driving forward the introduction of recyclable plant pots potentially saving 8,000 tonnes of plastic going to landfill.
• Industry value – for the first time quantifying the value and contribution of the industry to enable us to raise our profile with Government and decision makers.

HTA President, Boyd Douglas-Davies, comments,

“I feel that this is a very exciting time for the industry – yes there are lots of challenges but with this also comes lots of opportunity. Sustainability is a key area that the industry is working hard on which is hugely important. Let’s not forget we are producing a great product in the shape of plants or ‘clean air machines’. We need to shout about this from the roof tops to ensure that the buyers of the future continue to come to us for great products that have a positive impact on the environment.”He adds, “I look forward to taking the association through the next two years and encourage all members to play an active role in helping to shape the organisation for the future – ensuring the needs of the industry evolve with the challenges and opportunities that come our way.”

Members from across the sector who attended the AGM received the finance reports and annual review and re-appointed BDO as auditors. With regard to membership subscriptions for 2020, an average percentage increase of 3% across all bands, in line with inflation, was ratified.

Dougal Philip, Vice President of the Benevolent Fund, provided a report on activity across the year and encouraged all to help raise awareness of this valuable and underused resource which is available to HTA members and their staff.

The minutes of the AGM will be available to members on the HTA website in due course.