£7m garden centre still waiting to find a buyer
PUT UP FOR SALE BACK IN MAY
ANYONE looking to buy a busy garden centre on the outskirts of Derby will have to stump up £7.5 million, according to the agents marketing the site.
In May, it was announced that Findern Garden Centre – with 144 others operated by Wyevale – was to be sold.
The firm’s owner, private equity fund Terra Firma Capital Partners, appointed property specialist Christie & Co to advise on the sale of the sites, including the Burton Road garden centre.
Since then Christie’s has sold 27 sites but the Findern centre, which is on a 5.22-acre plot, is still on the market.
The centres in Wyevale’s portfolio range from horticultural centres to major leisure destination venues.
The sites range in size from one to 108 acres and are described by Christie & Co as “profitable standalone business opportunities”.
It said that Wyevale Garden Centres had invested significantly in the business and the majority of sites have high specification restaurants and cafes, many with children’s soft play areas.
This week, Christie’s confirmed it had sold five of its largest sites to Dobbies Garden Centres, in Gloucester; Heighley Gate (Morpeth); Huntingdon; Woodbridge (Suffolk) and Woodlands (Leicester).
On its website, Christie & Co said: “This is a unique opportunity for inde- pendent business people and entrepreneurs to buy well invested local garden centres. Entrepreneurs will be attracted to a market with the prospect of enhancing an already resilient income and the potential to add their own profitable activities.
“These will also be of particular interest to creative buyers. Current garden centre operators seeking to complement or improve their existing business will also be attracted to the disposal, as break-up opportunities of this quality rarely come to the market.
“The garden centre market is on an upwards trajectory, largely due to demand from families with young children and the baby-boomer demographic.
“In recent years garden centres have evolved to become wider leisure and retail destinations, with play centres for children, restaurants and other activities designed to improve the shopping experience.”
Wyevale is the largest operator of garden centres in the UK, with most of its centres in the south-east. The firm began as a mail-order nursery in 1932 before becoming one of the UK’s earliest niche garden centres in 1966.
It was bought by private equity company Terra Firma in 2012 and employs about 6,000 people. Wyevale put its 145 garden centres up for sale in May at prices ranging from £200,000 to £35m and with a combined value of £450m.