The Garden Centre Group has selected marketing company SpaceandPeople a five year contract to exclusively manage commercialisation activity across its 135 centre portfolio.
The agreement covers promotional space across brands such as Wyevale, Blooms and Country Gardens and constitutes the biggest portfolio of garden centres in the country. A range of internal and external sites are available for a variety of different promotional activities including car displays and home improvement products and services.

Matthew Bending, SpaceandPeople's group ceo, said: "Increasingly brands want to access the buying power of an older demographic with high disposable income and ample leisure time. The visitor profile of these centres will enable this and its significance is important in keeping experiential media in venues as a key channel for brands.

"This demographic profile is difficult to access using traditional media as these consumers tend to be less media savvy and are resistant to modern media messages. This contract will provide an ideal platform for brands and their key consumers to meet."

At the beginning of the month, Dobbies Garden Centres announced a u-turn on its plans to charge charities for using space in its centres to collect donations. A spokesperson at Dobbies pointed out that the company was one of many others doing the same thing. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for SpaceandPeople said this had become "common practice" in the retail industry.