Blooms looks to larger UK centres
Garden retailer warns on lower trading
Garden Centre retailer Blooms of Bressingham has announced a funding deal for its largest site to date, but has reported flat like-for-like current sales in a ‘subdued’ market.
Blooms has completed the funding agreement to expand its centre in Gloucester, which is scheduled to open next March. The centre, with covered heated selling space of 55,000 sq ft, will be the largest Blooms garden centre, as well as the largest in Gloucestershire ‘by a substantial margin’.
Blooms also said it is making progress with development plans for a greenfield site at Rugby, where the comonay has applied for a revised planning consent for a total of 43,000 sq ft of covered heated space.
Blooms said: “Along with the rest of the industry trading in 2004 has been relatively subdued following a remarkably good 2003. Our like- for-like sales were up 4.6 per cent for the year to the end of May but have since fallen back and are broadly unchanged for the year to date.”
Sales have suffered by comparison with strong trading last summer as well as the impact of redevelopment work in Gloucester. “Given this recent slow down in sales, the board consequently anticipates that the outturn for the year ending January 2005 is likely to be modestly below current forecasts.”
Blooms said the current year is ‘transitional’ as it plans for the development of large new centres. The developments at Gloucester and Rugby, as well as at Bicester, “offer the opportunity over the next few years to increase our covered heated space by no less than 100per cent. Over this period we will realise our ambition of broadening our appeal much further into the less weather dependent areas of leisure and gift.”
