Record-breaking year at centre

The firm’s Garden Centre Sales Division, which is run by Retail Sales Manager, Mark Reynard has had a turbulent year to say the least when garden centres were forced to shut leading to postponed and cancelled orders of thousands of perishable plants.

The division which relied heavily on online plant retailers during lockdown has surpassed its original budget figure to achieve a record-breaking year despite all of the challenges faced.

The company had to think outside of the box during the lockdown period and come up with initiatives to save what would otherwise be wasted stock by donating hundreds of plants to local villages as well as creating ‘Garden Rescue Packs’ which were sold by online plant suppliers, Hedges Direct.

Over 300 ‘Garden Rescue Packs’ were shipped from April – May including one to the investor, Deborah Meaden. The packs included a selection of x50 2L or x25 5L mixed shrubs.

Once the Garden Centres could re-open Johnsons experienced unprecedented demand for their plants. Over 700,000 plants have made it down their plant preparation line from April - now.

The division’s successes are due to the publics newfound love of gardening and home improvements with companies such as Notonthehighstreet seeing a 230 per cent increase in garden-related searches in August alone. Johnsons staff did a fantastic job of fulfilling the high demand, working overtime, including weekends and evenings to produce and collate all of the orders.

Retail Sales Manager, Mark Reynard, said: “A notable year in my 40-year career at Johnsons.

“It’s astonishing to have come out of the ‘other end’ in what we initially thought was going to be the most challenging year the division had ever faced.

“We are so grateful for all our staff’s hard work and all of the orders and support from our customers new and old.

“We know there are lots of challenges ahead for all of us in the coming months but hope the publics newfound love of gardening continues into next year.“

A family-run plant nursery, it was first established in 1921 by Eric Johnson. It was taken over by John Richardson in 1964 and became Johnsons of Whixley Ltd in 1993.