Wyevale describes 2014 as a 'year of investment'

Garden centre chain Wyevale grew its revenue by 5.1% to £290.4 million in 2014, after the company acquired nine new garden centres and began to roll out a store improvement programme.

Operating profit rose by 55% to £34.1 million while reported EBITDA was £56.1 million compared to £42.7 million in the previous year.

Kevin Bradshaw, chief executive of Wyevale Garden Centres, said: “In 2014 we delivered a positive increase across all key financial metrics and a 99% increase in EBITDA since 2012. Notably, we have driven revenues despite challenging weather patterns, increased concession income by more than 25.7%, and improved our margins through a rigorous operational transformation that is still underway.

“2015 has been equally promising as we look forward to launching a full multi-channel offer which, with home delivery and click-and-collect, will offer greater ease of shopping for all our customers.”

During the year, Wyevale strengthened its management team with a number of key appointments and modernised its operations by introducing a central hub distribution process.

It also started to roll out a store enhancement programme to improve the customer journey, category adjacencies and category mix of the retail offer estate wide.

Wyevale completed the acquisition of nine garden centres in the year. These included Brooks, Moreton Park, Poddington, Raglan and Ashford, as well as Golden Acres Group, a chain of four centres.

Stephen Murphy, chairman of Wyevale Garden Centres, said: “Wyevale Garden Centres has had a transformational year, strengthening our position as the UK’s largest garden centre retailer.

“We adopted our national brand identity building our horticulture heritage, strengthened the core of our business through modernised operations, broadened our retail proposition and award-winning restaurant offer, invested in improving our centres for customers, and increased our number of high-quality garden centres to 148 during the year.

“These accomplishments are the building blocks of our strategy to build upon the garden centre’s unique role as not only a retail but also a leisure destination to grow sales and expand our business.”

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Source : Retail Bulletin
www.theretailbulletin.com/news/wyevale_enjoys_transformational_year_03-07-15/