New owner of Burnley garden centre pledges £500,000 upgrade
A BUSINESS which operated the Towneley Garden Centre near Burnley has been placed into administration following its directors’ failure to get creditors to agree to a company voluntary arrangement.
Joint administrators Paul Stanley and Jason Greenhalgh from the Manchester office of Begbies Traynor were appointed as joint administrators to Growing Capital on August 18. The business had been owned by Sigma Leisure Management and was run by directors Hitesh Patel and Bryan Ackers.
The joint administrators have now sold the business, which is based on a 14-acre site at Deerpark Road in the grounds of Towneley Hall to Woodthorpe Hall Group, which owns four other other garden centres in East Yorkshire, Cleveland and Lincolnshire. It has retained the 40 staff who worked at the centre and is pledging to spend a further £500,000 on an upgrade.
Woodthorpe Hall Group’s general manager, Phillippa Nickson, said: “We are delighted to have acquired Towneley Garden Centre. We feel that it has tremendous potential for development and we will be making a substantial investment in the centre to increase its ranges and its facilities.”
“The Group’s ongoing expansion gives us increased retail stock buying power, and this enables us to pass on to our customers the savings we achieve. Towneley is our first garden centre in the North West and we hope to acquire a further five centres in the North and Midlands during the next five years to bring our total to 10,” she said.
The Woodthorpe Hall Group began trading 20 years ago when it opened Woodthorpe Hall Garden Centre near Alford in Lincolnshire. Ten years ago the Group acquired Brigg Garden Centre in Lincolnshire, which is one of the biggest in the region. In 2008, the Group acquired Arcadia Garden Centre, near Middlesbrough, and last year it purchased Spring Garden Centre at Sigglesthorne in East Yorkshire. It now has 350 staff, compared to 275 staff a year ago.
