Wyevale Garden Centres has continued its march into the north east of England with the acquisition of one of the North East’s leading garden centre businesses.
It has bought the highly successful Heighley Gate Garden Centre, which is situated off the A1, near Morpeth, Northumberland.

The acquisition follows the company's purchase of Peter Barratt's Garden Centres in September - its first incursion into the north east.

Heighley Gate is Wyevale's first store in Northumberland and is a 40 acre site, with over 50,000 square metres of covered retail space and nursery areas.

It is Wyevale's first acquisition since chairman, Jim Hodkinson, parted company with his chief executive, Barry Stevenson, and took a more hands-on role in the running of the company.

Since being acquired for £323 million in April 2006 by West Coast Capital (Hortis), Wyevale has embarked on an aggressive buying programme which has seen the likes of Blooms of Bressingham, Sanders GardenWorld and Bridgemere Garden World all come within its 121 garden centre portfolio.

In 2007 alone the company spent over £50m on acquisitions.