Post-pandemic overhaul planned by garden centre
AN award-winning garden centre plans a number of changes as it plans for the post-pandemic future.
Fron Goch Garden Centre near Caernarfon completed an extension to the shop and canopy areas during the pandemic after securing permission just before Covid hit.
Once open again, this has proved to be very successful but the owners say the “pandemic has led to a need for a new approach to the garden centre’s retailing model”.
This has now seen them submit a proposal for three changes to the site to help them meet customer demand and which will create 15 jobs.
The first is for a large storage warehouse, as global demand has caused the cost of shipping containers to rocket.
The owners said: “Garden centres import products such as garden centre furniture, barbecues and artificial Christmas trees and because costs and lead times have increased significantly over the past year, it has been necessary to order larger volumes of stock in order to guarantee availability at key selling periods.
“The existing warehouse is too small to accommodate additional stock and therefore an additional warehouse is required.”
The second change is to meet a demand for a click and collect service.
They said: “To facilitate ‘click and collect’ it is necessary to set up a dedicated customer vehicle loading area, a customer orders holding area (within a dry environment), a goods dispatch and customer order processing office, all being adjacent to the warehouse.”
The third pandemic trend is for people to spend more time in their gardens, increasing demand for plants, decorations, and buildings. To support this, Fron Goch wants to extend the open sales area.
Bosses also want to increase car parking spaces.
They said: “The above proposed development will assist Fron Goch Garden Centre to remain a successful business and one which is highly valued by the local community.
“It is projected that current employee numbers will increase from 106 to 121.”
The plans have been lodged with Gwynedd council.