Gateacre Garden Centre in Liverpool is closing down, however its sister garden centre, Burleydam in Little Sutton, is thriving and winning awards.
Sally Cornelissen and her husband Adrian manage both centres, but have taken the decision to close Gateacre mainly because of competition from a nearby Dobbies Garden Centre.

Gateacre was founded in the 1930s by Mrs Cornelissen's grandfather as a place to grow trees, but as Liverpool grew, Gateacre became completely landlocked and so the garden centre has been unable to expand.

Mrs Cornelissen explained to DIY Week: "The 80s and 90s were great, people poured in. But peoples' shopping habits have changed over the years and they think nothing of driving 40 minutes to a destination garden centre.

"We did think of adding a restaurant, but we could only have a maximum of 40 covers and could not make the balance between wages and turnover work."

Dobbies opened in 2011 and Mrs Cornelissen said the opening did make a dent in takings.

She added: "We experienced two horrible years of trading. It has been heart-breaking to see it close down, but we would only be keeping it open for sentimental reasons."

Gateacre will finally close its doors on July 31 and with its closure Mrs Cornelissen and her husband are free to continue investing in their other garden centre Burleydam, which has recently been awarded Best Garden Centre in north west by the Garden Centre Association.

"Winning the award is great," Mrs Cornelissen said. "It has given us that boost and shown us that we haven't been retailing in the wrong way, but it's just a sign of the times for small retailers."

The family acquired Burleydam in 1989 and since then thousands of pounds have been invested into the garden centre.

In 2005 the garden centre more than doubled in size to provide more retail space and Mrs Cornelissen says more investment is planned with ideas for a new entranceway and a new warehouse.

She continued: "We have lots of exciting things in the pipeline. Having a great garden centre goes beyond having the right staff and products at the right price, and at Burleydam we try to create a real community feeling for our staff and our customers."