Express & Star

Jobs safe as Dobbies buys garden centres

Jobs have been preserved after several Wyevale garden centres were bought by Dobbies.

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Shenstone Garden Centre has been bought by Dobbies. Photo: Google

The company has completed the acquisition of 31 garden centres from Wyevale, including branches at Shenstone, near Lichfield, Moreton Park near Oswestry and in Telford.

Dobbies has a branch on the A5 at Gailey in Staffordshire and another next to the A5 Bayston Hill Roundabout in Shrewsbury.

The deal has been done for an undisclosed sum, with 40 staff members at Telford and 53 at Moreton Park seeing their jobs remain intact. It is not known how many jobs were at risk at Shenstone.

The Wyevale centres in Shipley and Albrighton will remain unchanged.

Graeme Jenkins, Dobbies Garden Centres CEO said he was “delighted” to be buying the centres.

The transaction with Dobbies is the third Wyevale has done following the sale of five centres, plus a single site sale, to its rival in October 2018.

In total, 1,400 jobs will be transferred across the 31 gardening centres.

Until last year, Wyevale was the UK’s largest garden centre chain with 145 branches ranging from local horticultural centres to major leisure destination venues.

However the latest transaction means Wyevale has now managed to sell off 85 stores since first revealing sell-off plans in May 2018.

One of the first Wyevale centres to be sold was Percy Thrower’s Garden Centre in Shrewsbury, which was sold to Blue Diamond in July last year.

Following the sale to Dobbies this week Wyevale said it remains a top three gardening retailer in the UK.