Which prominent Suffolk garden centre has been sold?
Staff at the Perrywood Garden Centre, Sudbury - Credit: Perrywood Garden Centre
A Sudbury garden centre has new owners after being taken over by a family business from Essex.
Staff at the Perrywood Garden Centre, Sudbury - Credit: Perrywood Garden Centre
The business, in Newton Road, has been snapped up by the directors of family-owned Perrywood Garden Centre and Nurseries, from Tiptree, Essex.
A spokesman said: “This is an exciting development for Perrywood, one of the UK’s leading garden centres, which has been on its original site in Tiptree since the 1950s.
“Perrywood is operating the new garden centre under the Perrywood brand, and it will be known as Perrywood, Sudbury.”
Simon Bourne, retail director at Perrywood, said: “We had been discussing possible acquisitions in our board meetings so when the Wyevale stores came on the market, we felt the Sudbury site was an opportunity not to be missed. We look forward to bringing our commercial knowledge and passion for plants to the Sudbury site. We are keen to preserve the history of the site that I’m sure many of you remember being owned by Cramphorns. If anyone has stories or pictures to share we’d love to hear from them.”
The centre has continued trading since Perrywood took over in September, he said. The team has been focused on improving the offering and bringing a Perrywood feel to the store with ‘how-to’ leaflets, houseplants at the front of the store and more stock including new and improved ranges of bird care, gloves, tools, indoor and outdoor plants (including plants from the Perrywood Grown range) and pots. The restaurant was temporarily closed and is now re-opened as a coffee shop; selling homemade soup, sandwiches and cakes and of course Perrywood’s famous scones, he said.
Five new jobs have already been created.
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Perrywood has more than 30 years’ experience running its award-winning Tiptree garden centre, which has a plant production nursery, gift and home shop and 260-seater coffee shop and restaurant. As a £9.2m turnover business, the company employs 165 staff and is ranked at number four in the Garden Centre Association (GCA) league table.
Perrywood hopes to replicate this success in Sudbury and has retained all 22 staff there.
As a business, Perrywood is committed to supporting charities and the local community. During 2017, Perrywood Tiptree donated more than £14,000 to charities.
The Sudbury Wyevale was valued at £1.1m at the time of its sale.
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