Millbrook wins Local Garden Centre of the Year

Published on 12 July 2024

Teams at both our garden centres are celebrating this week after scooping awards at the Garden Centre Association (GCA) presentation evening yesterday at Haskins Garden Centre Snowhill (Thursday, July 11, 2024)

Millbrook Staplehurst was named Local Garden Centre of the Year and came 1st for Best Customer Service, while Gravesend won joint 1st for Best Food Hall /Farm Shop. Both centres also scored highly in the Environment and Sustainability category, winning 2nd (Gravesend) and 3rd (Staplehurst) out of 59 member garden centres across the South East region.

GCA inspections took place earlier this year at garden centres across the South East and the results were revealed on the night.

Our team were on hand to pick up the following accolades for Millbrook:

Millbrook Staplehurst

Local Garden Centre of the Year
1st - Best Customer Service
1st - GIMA Award for Best Garden Products
3rd – Paul Cooling Environment & Sustainability Award
3rd - Best Local Garden Centre Restaurant
3rd - Best Outdoor Living Retailer
3rd - Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer

The Staplehurst plant area was also nominated for the Ruxley Rose Award which will be judged later in the year.

Millbrook Gravesend

Joint 1st - Best Food Hall / Farm Shop
1st - GIMA Award for Best Garden Products
2nd - Paul Cooling Environment & Sustainability Award
3rd – Garden Centre of the Year

One GCA inspector, Alyson, made unannounced visits to 59 member garden centres in the South East area across a 12-week period.

Speaking at the event she said: “It was a pleasure to judge the South East region for the GCA inspections. After the great turnout at our pre-inspection meeting, I was excited to visit all the member centres.

“Although the ‘normal’ weather for the season did not make much of an appearance whilst I was on my travels in the South East, or indeed anywhere else in the country at the time, I’m pleased to say the staff at each garden centre were all very upbeat.

“The centres were looking good with some great examples of creativity and innovation and some super plant ranges too. I thoroughly enjoyed all my visits this year.”

Millbrook Managing Director, Tammy Woodhouse, was delighted with the results of the 2024 regional awards.

“I'm really proud and very pleased that Millbrook has achieved so much in the GCA awards this year, for both centres and across such a wide range of areas. This is testament to how hard the team work together to do their best for the centre and for our customers. Thank you to our staff, and our amazing customers, for supporting us to win these awards.”

The GCA represents more than 200 garden centres nationwide.

Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.

For further information, please visit www.gca.org.uk.