Green Lancashire business steps up to bigger site after surpassing £1m sales
An eco-friendly business that began life in a cow shed has moved to a new 7,500 sq ft industrial unit, after breaking the £1m turnover mark.
The Garden Village designs and makes wheelie bin storage units. It has grown from making just one to more than 100 products at its new home in Altham, near Accrington, Lancashire.
Trained horticulturist Caroline Donelan, 37, was running a gardening landscape design business when a bout of ill health forced her to cut back on active work and focus on this new opportunity.
What started out as a side hustle quickly grew, but it was during the pandemic that sales really took off as people began to invest more in their outside space.
Caroline said: “We were asked so many times to make storage units for bins so we decided to have a go at making our own, literally starting in a rented cowshed on a local farm.
“I knew there was a gap in the market as we had researched it and couldn’t find anything similar on sale, but I never imagined that it would take off in the way it has.”
She added: “I think that, particularly during COVID, people were spending all this money to make their gardens look nice but were then left still having to look at ugly bins and wanted a solution for that.
“All of our products are made by our expert craftspeople using local, sustainable, pressure-treated timber, so they are responsibly sourced and made to not only look good but to last.”
The Garden Village now employs a team of 10, manufacturing upwards of 20 units per day including bin stores in varying sizes, storage for garden equipment, bikes, logs, parcels and even an outside bar. The latter picked up a gold award in the outdoor leisure category at last year’s prestigious Garden Industry Manufacturers Awards.
The deal for the new manufacturing base was overseen by law firm Jackson Lees whose corporate and commercial team has worked with The Garden Village for several years, advising on all major matters including a recent share acquisition to make director Caroline the sole shareholder.
As well as negotiating the lease and dealing with the share acquisition, Jackson Lees has also recently prepared the terms and conditions and contracts for a new range of products aimed at the commercial bin storage market.
