Garden centre profits bloom

Garden centre group Dobbies is growing fast - thanks to a long hot summer that made up for a wet and cold spring.

The centre, which has bases at Gailey and Shrewsbury, revealed it struggled in the early part of last year with gardeners turned off buying plants because of heavy rain and unseasonally cool conditions.

The summer heatwave that saw temperatures reach almost 100F saved the day as people rushed to buy garden furniture and barbeque equipment.

But sales of plants and general gardening products were flat because there was less early planting because of the poor spring.

The best seller was overwhelmingly garden furniture because more families now treat their garden as an extension of their living room or dining area.

Total sales for the group, which has 19 centres, were up 13.5 per cent to £68.8 million in the year to October 31, with pre-tax profits lifting 11 per cent to £5.4 million.

Chief executive James Barnes said: "These are good results achieved against a background of often difficult trading conditions.

"We are putting in place the building blocks that will allow us to raise the growth rate of the business over the coming years."