Group acquires three sites from Garden Centres of Excellence.
More garden centre acquisition activity has seen Channel Island based group Blue Diamond purchase three garden centres from Garden Centres of Excellence.

Derby and Matlock have been bought including their freehold, while Chatsworth is taken on an operational management agreement.

The acquistion takes Blue Diamond's total garden centre operations to twelve.

The purchase of these two centres and the operation group management of the third will see the Blue Diamond Group's annual turnover increase from £33 million to £41 million making them the third largest Garden Centre Group in the UK.

Alan Roper, md of Blue Diamond said: "My ambition for these centres is to carve out a niche market in the ABC1 sector and maintain a distinctive point of difference.

"Matlock, which is a relatively small site, will give me the opportunity to try out an upmarket boutique format allowing it be different from Derby."

Blue Diamond plans to take these three already profitable businesses and position them alongside its other centres to provide a high-end retail offer.

Gardens of Excellence Group managing director John Tarbatt, said of the sale: "Blue Diamond have the expertise and investment capital to improve the business, which is good news for our staff and customers."

Matlock, Derby and the Garden Centre at Chatsworth House are all within proximity of each other.

"They sit comfortably alongside Blue Diamond's other UK centres in Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Lincolnshire, where the demographics deliver a high percentage of Blue Diamonds target audience," the group added.