Getting the green light

After the name and concept of Europatuin was bought by property magnate Ed Maas (see PET in Europe 1/2005), it was clear to most of the 44 former Europatuin operators that they didn’t want to be part of the set-up any more. Waterdrinker, the plant wholesaler based in Aalsmeer, established the Life & Garden franchise organisation and offered 20 selected garden centres out of the 44 operators, with retail areas ranging from 3,000 to just under 10,000 m², the opportunity to become a “Life & Garden” outlet. 16 agreed straight away and met on 14 November for talks, forming project groups to plan the reorganisation of their garden centres and business operations. The others could not make their minds up quite so quickly. But the pressure was on, as the new Europatuin proprietor took out a court order prohibiting the “rebels” from continuing to trade under the “Europatuin” name and setting a cut-off date of 27 November.
The Life & Garden outlet in Delft has an indoor retail area of 7,000 m² and was opened in October 2003, initially as a Europatuin store.
This left those responsible at Life & Garden just a week to get the new concept up and running, produce signs and brochures and reorganise the stores. “Business carried on in all garden centres throughout the period”, says Lobke Samallo, who is responsible for marketing and publicity. “We kept our customers constantly up to date regarding developments.” Peter Paul Kleinbussink, managing director of Life & Garden, sets out two of the key points regarding the reorganisation of the existing garden centres: “We have considerably reduced and refined the selection of products available in the garden centres. And we want to convey to customers the idea of lifestyle and a guaranteed feelgood factor in our garden centres”. The range has been divided into four core areas: garden, patio, living and lifestyle. Although lifestyle is currently the focus of further development, the emphasis in the overall range is on living greenery with indoor and outdoor plants. This accounts at present for 40 per cent and is to be extended to at least 50 per cent. And the hardware range is being expanded to include decorating and wellness products. “We intend to offer our customers individuality, not just palleted goods and promotional products that only sell on account of the price”, comments Lobke Samallo.
The typical pet department of a Life & Garden garden centre covers at least 200 m².
The lifestyle range, which can…