Dobbies opens Bar Hill store

Dobbies has opened its 35th centre.

A new Dobbies Garden Centre store opened its doors on 3 October as its first store-within-a-store at Tesco in Bar Hill, but says it has no further store openings planned in the next few months.

Cutting the flower-decked green ribbon to officially declare it open for business were pupils, Charlotte Dyson, Jasmine Murphey, Star Dalston, Jada Fiatls, Chloe Proudfoot and AJ Debono - all from Bar Hill Primary School. The children were joint-winners of a competition run by Dobbies to design their own garden and have also secured their school £500 of plants and gardening products. They also took part in a Little Seedlings workshop.

Tesco-owned Dobbies general manager Chris Swales said:

"I’m thrilled our new store is open and the feedback today from our first customers has been fantastic. We’re proud to be offering a huge range of beautiful garden products, gifts and home ware – as well as a small pets and aquatics store. We’re already looking forward to opening Santa’s grotto next month. It’s also been great to create a total of fourteen new jobs for people who truly love plants, pets and shopping."

The new Dobbies follows the completion of a revamp of the neighbouring Tesco store, which included the addition of a number of new departments and services.

Tesco Bar Hill Store Manager Owen Davies added:

"The new Dobbies shop is really exciting. Customers have been coming up to me for weeks asking when it’s going to open and what it will stock. We just finished a major revamp of our store a few weeks ago, adding some new departments and refurbishing areas like the counters and fresh food. I think customers are going to really love the combination of our refreshed Tesco store and the new Dobbies."

The Tesco refurbishment is part of a UK-wide plan to revamp 650 stores across the UK with new look fruit and veg departments, revamped health and beauty departments and new meat and fish counters. The Bar Hill store also has a new Food to Go range and a branch of the coffee chain Harris+Hoole.

Source : Matthew Appleby - Horticulture Week
www.hortweek.com