Horticulture firm aims to grow retail sales after landing funding deal

Woodgrow Horticulture, a Derby trade supplier of horticultural products, has invested and developed its retail offering after securing a six-figure loan from HSBC UK through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

For 45 years Woodgrow Horticulture has supplied a wide range of trade horticultural products to the gardening, landscaping and building sectors. The business has recently adapted to changes in demand by initiating the development of an ecommerce operation to serve the wider retail and trade market, where demand for its landscaping and gardening products has escalated in recent months.

The second-generation family-run business says it has seen growth of 20% across its retail arm of the business since March, and with the funding from HSBC, hopes to achieve a 50/50 split between wholesale and retail in the future.

Martin Woodhouse, director of Woodgrow Horticulture, said: “Our main source of custom for the last 45 years has been with traders across the gardening, landscaping and building sectors. However, the pandemic hit our industry hard and some of our trade customers had to reduce their operations overnight which forced us to rethink our business model. Thanks to the support from our relationship manager at HSBC UK, Dan Pawar, we were able to quickly adapt our business by developing our sales infrastructure to cope with the upturn in retail sales.”

David Tomlinson, HSBC UK East Midlands area director, added: “Wholesalers across the horticultural industry were heavily impacted during lockdown period. The team at Woodgrow were able to adjust despite the challenging conditions and HSBC UK was pleased to support them as they made long-term strategical changes to the business.”

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