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HortiTrends Weekly News and Comment - Kildare Growers Go Centre Stage at Irish Hardware Show 2015 - December 12th
- 12 December 2014
The Kildare Growers have announced their participation at the Irish Hardware Show 2015. The group will be showcasing the best of what Irish nurseries have to offer, to all garden retailers at the upcoming event which takes place in February. It's likely that we will be seeing more co-operation between what could be described as traditional garden centres and the independent and chain DIY stores with a garden centre offering. This co-operation could be seen at the recent Retail Excellence Ireland (REI) eCommerce event, where the REI Garden Centre Group members Arboretum, Newlands and Horkans were working hand in hand with the like of Woodies, Glanbia and DairyGold, to achieve best practise in online retailing. In a recent conversation with Declan Ronayne CEO of Woodies, he commented that the traditional garden centre's and DIY stores should be co-operating with each other more, in order to increase the overall spend of consumers in the garden retail market, which would be good for everyone working in the sector. It was also interesting to note on a recent visit to Woodies in Drogheda, that one of their trained horticulturists was busy laying out a planting design and giving customer service, in my opinion, that you might expect at the best of the independents garden centre's. That said, from talking to current and past horticulturists at Woodies, one of their frustrations is being called off to pack shelves inside, when all as they want to do is help their garden centre customers, along with keeping the plant offering looking great. More co-operation between the garden centres and DIY stores should mean more plants and sundries sold, which will be good for everyone involved in the garden retail sector in Ireland.
