An exclusive three-year deal with Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm, as seen in the Amazon TV series Clarkson’s Farm, is already seeing branded items including ‘bee juice’ (honey), crisps, oils and more on sale at the garden centres and managing director Alan Roper said that the group will be creating special items featuring the name later in the year.
Its pre-tax profits increased by 44% to £31.4m. last year, according to its annual report, with total sales up by 19% to £344m.
And speaking the day after the group’s annual general meeting of shareholders, Mr Roper said that a deal with Caledonian Investments had been agreed, under which it will take a 16% minority shareholding in Blue Diamond and invest a total of £60m.
The group has grown through acquisition of largely independent garden centres in the UK in its core regions. It acquired Holt Garden Centre in Norfolk in April this year and Leaf Creatives in Gloucester in March, and there are plans for a further three this year alone.
On top of that will be another new garden centre which has been built at Alberton and will be opening in March next year and another on the edge of the Peak District, being built next year and due to open in 2028.
‘But in terms of an operational base, the head office will remain in Guernsey,’ he said.
Mr Roper joined the group in 1999 after already taking on a number of garden centres as a partner in his own business, and has made the island his home ever since.
‘I’ve lived here for 27 years… despite the business expanding,’ he said.
‘I raised a family here and I’m happy staying here.’
While there are about 40 staff based in the island, in total the group employs about 5,000 across its 54 garden centres in the islands and the UK.
The company started life in 1904 as Fruit Export before adopting the Blue Diamond name in the early 80s to reflect its trademark.
Under Mr Roper as managing director the group has become the most financially successful garden centre company in the British Isles, with a turnover of about £450m. – twice that of its nearest rival.