The £10million investment programme at Scotsdales Garden Centre has reached a key milestone – the start of phase two, the construction of a new restaurant and enlarged food hall.
The development follows the recent completion of phase one, which has improved the plant area and garden shop, and seen an impressive new glazed Planteria area built. The vision of the project is “to deliver excellent value and expertise to Scotsdales’ core gardening customer, whilst promoting the benefits of outdoor living, so that everyone can appreciate ‘all the good things in life’”.
“We’re really pleased that the first stage of our development here is now complete,” said Scotsdales managing director Caroline Owen. “I’m very much anxious to complete the second phase.
“The reasons for doing it is that, one, the site here has had little investment since 1990 when we last invested in the main building. We [also] want to invest in the gardeners of Cambridge and give them somewhere to come when the garden is under cover, and [thirdly] that we weatherproof the business so that when the weather is a bit inclement – as it has certainly been this year – then they can shop under cover and buy most of their garden requisites.”
Caroline added of the dismantled greenhouses: “Personally, I was a little sad to see them go but we can’t stand in the way of improving the business. The second phase will be the development of our café – currently the café is too small for our customers’ requirements and we need a large investment there.”
The investment will cover new facilities including toilets and a new garden care shop. The development also offered an opportunity to assess the garden centre’s carbon footprint, with a “vast” number of upgrades, including solar panels being installed throughout.
Scotsdales has been run by the Rayner family for over 50 years and was originally founded by Cambridgeshire farmer David Rayner in 1968. In the early 1980s, David’s daughter, Caroline Owen, joined Scotsdales and, with her vision, helped develop the business to become one of the largest garden centres in the UK with outlets in Great Shelford, Fordham and Horningsea.
Caroline is a widely celebrated champion in the garden retail sector nationally. She is the only person to be president of the Horticultural Trades Association for two periods, and she is currently the chairman of the Tillington Group, an association of some of the best independent garden centre businesses in the UK.
She has won multiple awards including the Pearson memorial medal in 2011, and the lifetime achievement award in 2013.
Liz Gage, house plants manager, has worked at Scotsdales for 37 years. She, together with her colleagues, Liz Smith – 44 years of service – and Sam Carlton – 41 years of service – joined the family on site to see this next phase commence.
“I’ve worked at Scotsdales for almost 40 years,” Liz said, “and I’ve seen it grow and evolve in so many ways, but this development is spectacular. It will greatly enhance our customers’ experience and bring even more possibilities to our beloved garden centre.
“It’s very exciting and I feel immensely proud to be a part of this journey.”
