Superior pet departments

In May 1982 Kenn & Jackie Lloyd opened their garden centre in Cadbury on a 15-acre site, 12 miles south of Bristol. At the time, the location was a small salad nursery, but it had planning permission for a garden centre. Over the years the centre grew into one of Europe's most successful garden & leisure retail sites. Shortly after the Cadbury garden centre was rewarded with the title of garden centre of the year 1993, Kenn & Jackie decided that their vision for 21st-century garden centres should not be restricted to Cadbury and that there would be a number of other garden centres who could share their vision of quality, an exceptional product range, expert advice and a passion for customer service. The idea of the Garden & Leisure group was formed and to assist Kenn & Jackie Lloyd in developing this idea a financial partner was required. Kenn Lloyd had previously lived and worked in France and knew of Truffaut, itself a privately owned garden centre chain that shared many of the passions and ideas of Kenn & Jackie Lloyd. With Truffaut's support Garden & Leisure became a reality. The retail group was formed in 1997 and now has a total of seven stores around the UK. A year on from the formation of Garden & Leisure, the Endsleigh garden centre belonging to the Taylor family became the first to join. Since 1972 this site had been situated at Cadleigh Park on the busy A 38, near the fast growing South Hams town of Ivybridge. Ambitious plans for redeveloping the site were drawn up. As is often the case, the application for planning consent took much longer than anticipated, mainly due to the concerns of the Highways Agency. After a considerable delay, planning permission was finally granted and the centre was launched in October 2002. Today Endsleigh has around 190 employees and occupies a 12-acre site. Barnett Hill and Tacchi's Garden Scene (now Huntingdon Garden & Leisure) became members of the group in 1999. In the years following, both businesses implemented ambitious plans for relaunching their garden centres, although Barnett Hill initially encountered some complications with the local planning authorities. After planning permission for a 6 000 m² building located over the old nursery had been rejected, a solution based on a radical design rethink was chosen. All the elements of the old centre that were scattered around the site were condensed into one building, which nestled into the landscape in the lee of Barnett…