The team from Sidmouth Garden Centre has just returned from London the proud owners of 2 National Retail Awards!

The HTA (Horticultural Trade Association) hosts the awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane every year to reward retail excellence. Over 2200 Garden Centres are eligible to take part from all over the UK.


There were 18 awards up for grabs with Sidmouth being finalised for 5 of them; Garden Retail Outlet of the Year (under 3 million turnover), National Customer Service Award, Sales Team of the Year, Best Planteria and Employee of the Year with plants manager and local fireman Darren Knapman one of the five finalists.

It was a tense evening with 6 members of staff making the trip to hear the results at the awards night hosted by comedian Tony Hawks. As the event got under way it was easy to see that there was a lot of competition with finalists attending from over 50 centres, including Tunbridge Wells Garden Centre (The Garden Centre Group), Lowden Garden Centre, Simpsons Garden Centre, Endsleigh Garden and Leisure and RHS Garden Wisley, all in the same categories as Sidmouth Garden Centre.

Sidmouth went on to win Garden Retail Outlet of the Year (for the third time in four years!) and won a new category for Best Sales Team. They where also highly commended for their customer service ethics, an award they won last year! The ethos at Sidmouth has always been that a happy customer will come again, with that in mind the hand picked team works hard on making sure every customers visit is a happy one.

The awards are judged by a panel of 10 people who have all been in the trade for many years, including Steve Bradley the Gardening correspondent for the Sun and Gavin McEwan features editor for Horticulture Week. Judging consists of 2 mystery shoppers and a written entry detailing sales figures, targets, staffing and costs.

The Sidmouth Home & Garden site on the A3052 just outside Sidmouth is also home to a large unique gift shop and a lifestyle shop called Temptation, and a 150 seat restaurant/coffee shop that are both real assets to the Centre attracting customers from miles away.