B&M opens 100th garden centre

B&M is celebrating a century of Garden Centres after opening its latest store in Salisbury – and growth won’t stop there.

The variety retailer first branched out into the garden centre market in 2011 and their success over the last five years has led to its milestone 100th Garden Centre store in Salisbury.

Last year alone B&M sold enough artificial turf to cover more than nine football pitches, enough fence panels to cross the English Channel five times, and more than five million plants.

And after muscling in on the competition, the UK’s fastest growing retailer has plans to open a further 10 Garden Centres by the end of 2016.

Located at Dolphin Retail Park, Southampton Road, the brand new Home Store & Garden Centre has created more than 80 jobs, providing a welcome boost to the local community. As well as stocking branded and own-label homeware, toys, grocery and DIY ranges, the Salisbury store will sell all year-round garden ranges for which B&M is becoming more and more popular.

Simon Arora, Chief Operating Executive at B&M, said: “We are delighted to reach this milestone at our Garden Centre division, which now has the critical mass to be an important player in the sector."

Joining in the celebrations on a landmark day for B&M, Lisa Helks and Julia Doig from Home Start Salisbury were invited to take part in the opening ceremony.

Nominated by store colleagues, the charity received £250 worth of B&M vouchers as a thank you for opening the store and in recognition of the work it does to support families with young children in Wiltshire.

Mayor of Salisbury, Councillor Derek Brown OBE was also invited to take part, cutting the ribbon to officially declare the store “open”.

Store manager, Simon Arnold was delighted to host the local charity. He said: “The team from Home Start Salisbury really stood out for us as they go the extra mile for the community. We wanted to give them some VIP treatment as a thank you for all the hard work they do.

“We hope that our donation can help them to continue their great work.”

He added: “We’re feeling really positive about the creation of new jobs for local people and we hope customers are going to be delighted with their new store.

“We are all really excited to get the doors open and welcome our new customers.”

The new store follows hot on the heels of the Amesbury store, creating a total of 160 jobs in the Wiltshire area over the past two years.

B&M opened its first Garden Centre at its Barnfields Road store in Leek, Staffordshire in 2011. And the variety retailer has come even further since 2004, when it traded from just 21 stores. Earlier this year it celebrated its 500th store and notched a record 79 new store openings in the last financial year.

Source : B&M Stores Press Release
www.bmstores.co.uk

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