In This Issue
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Retail Lab @ Glee: Creative Director Romeo Sommers gives his verdict
Retail Lab @ Glee: Interview with WGSN’s Lisa White
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GIMA Buyer Connect declared a great success
Garden supplier's £4.5m investment in Ashford
Johnsons enhances lawn seed and salesforce at Glee
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Amazing response to Premier’s sensational new launch
Deco-Pak focus on traditional garden centres
Super Bright Glee for Smart Garden Products
Successful show for Kadai Firebowls
Westland launch ‘We Are Gardening' campaign
Successful Glee for Traditional Garden Games
Great response to Gold Leaf Gloves' new RHS Collection
Briers’ new products reinforce quality
Great response to Great Sense range
New range of cutting tools from Pedigree Garden
Bright outlook for Zest 4 Leisure
Woodstock Chimes: Musical Perfection with a Lifetime Tuning Guarantee
Seed potatoes the main topic of discussion at Taylors Bulbs
Evergreen Enterprises leads with quality, innovation and variety
Patio Black Spot Remover hits the right spot
Another successful Glee for award winners Vivagreen
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Glee New Product Awards
Glee Buyers Power List 2017: the winners
Clean sweep of Glee New Product Awards for I-Glo
GTN's Greatest Plant Retailing Awards
JAVADO win Best Plant Display Award
Great British Card Company present charity cheques
Tildenet enjoys growing support at Glee 2017
Vitax on point with its marketing
Show debut for Mr Fothergill's new David Domoney range
Adam hands over to Adam at the HTA
BBC Breakfast broadcasts live from Glee
Time to grow: Glee 2018
bio-bean scoops the 2017 GIMA Innovators’ Seed Corn Fund
Back British Business urges Durstons
Crest launch stunning new POS campaign
A Glee-full week for Greenfingers Charity
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Glee Daily News brings you all the latest Glee news - previews, live issues from the show and an omnibus edition
 
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Garden supplier's £4.5m investment in Ashford


Ashford-based Vatre Terracotta Ltd, which trades as Apta, has secured planning permission for a £4.5m warehouse, storage and distribution centre.

Apta is the UK’s leading supplier of garden pots and planters, selling its products under its own-brand as well as other prestigious names, including the Royal Horticultural Society and Laura Ashley.

Vatre Terracotta has a head office and distribution site at two locations in Dencora Way and nearby Leacon Road, but the firm has outgrown the facilities and spent two years scouring Ashford for a new home. Sales have doubled in the last eight years to £14m, and the company now supplies more than 1,200 customers throughout the UK and Ireland.  

The relocation plan safeguards more than 30 local jobs and will also enable additional staff to be employed as the business continues to grow. It will also reduce traffic in the town centre, especially HGVs and containers.

On Wednesday (21 Sept) Ashford’s planning committee heard that the company’s future in the Ashford borough would have been in jeopardy if it had been forced to find an alternative site outside the area. Councillors were unanimous in granting consent, subject to a number of conditions which the company is very happy to accommodate.

The development site is a six-acre parcel of surplus land owned by Oakover Nurseries at Tutt Hill on the A20 north west of Ashford, opposite the Holiday Inn Ashford North hotel. The plans cover commercial use for the import, storage, sorting and distribution of Apta’s products, plus a two-storey office and a showroom for the company’s customers and partners to view its products.



Managing Director Paul Sykes says he is delighted to have secured the go-ahead for the site, which he believes is the perfect base to enable the company to pursue expansion plans that have been curtailed by the lack of space at its current site.

“We are a growing business, an Ashford success story that’s been based in the town for more than 30 years. But by 2013 we were already starting to outgrow our current site. The owners were determined to keep the company in Ashford, but it took us a further two years of searching to find an alternative site in the borough.

“We’re absolutely delighted that Ashford Borough Council has approved our plans and we look forward to working with them to ensure that we satisfy the conditions attached to the consent.

“Tutt Hill is very important to our future in Ashford because it enables us to remain in the town for the foreseeable future. The A20 site is big enough for us to expand; it’s got excellent vehicle access and is convenient for the M20 and for our imports by road from Europe. It’s also within easy reach of Ashford so our existing workforce will have good access, and, above all, it’s affordable.”

He says the bigger site will allow the firm to expand. “In recent years we had to make the very difficult decision to decline several opportunities because we simply weren’t in a position to compete properly from our current location.



“At the new site we will have the opportunity to diversify into other similar items which compliment our existing products and customer base, and consider ways to co-operate with other local companies also supplying the horticultural trade.”

The company also believes that the new site will deliver important financial benefits by consolidating all of its activities onto one site with excellent transport links outside central Ashford. Paul adds: “At present we’re constantly moving stock from one location to another, which is costly and inefficient. By bringing all of our activity together on one site close to the town and M20 we won’t have to double-handle the goods, which is a great benefit.”

Brian Fraser of Oakover Nurseries welcomed the decision to grant planning consent for the development. He explained that the site was formerly used as a bulking plant for the nearby M20 construction works and today is easily accessed by an established apron off the A20. The land previously housed a consumer sales operation for shrubs and trees.

For more information about Apta visit www.apta.co.uk



Brian Fraser of Oakover Nurseries (left) and Vatre Terracotta Ltd Managing Director Paul Sykes at the Tutt Hill site on the A20 north west of Ashford.
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