Haskins Garden Centres transforms simple transactions into fun family days-out
Blending heritage with forward-thinking ambition, Haskins Garden Centres (Haskins) has established itself as one of the UK’s most distinctive destination garden center brands. A proudly brick-and-mortar-centric business, each of Haskins’ centers offers customers the opportunity to immerse themselves in the joy of gardening and home with a fun, multi-faceted family experience. With a legacy spanning back to the late 1800s, the family-owned company, which is now headquartered in Dorset, rose to success with a focus on experiential retail and now continues to evolve with staying true to its roots.
Today, as investment accelerates across its portfolio and new ventures further broaden its appeal, Haskins is redefining what a modern garden center can be. To honor the business’ longstanding legacy and uncover its plans for the future, Retail Merchandiser sits down with Andrew Harriss, Buying Director at Haskins, who shares insight into the company’s recent investments and developments. He begins our conversation, however, by sharing Haskins’ journey thus far and how it has influenced the business’ thoughtful operational strategy.
“Haskins is a family business that was founded by Harry Haskins in 1882. Our Chairman, Warren Haskins (Harry’s great grandson) came to the helm in the 1970s, and that’s when the business began to expand significantly from a small nursery to what it is today. We now have five large destination garden centers, each turning over around £10 million – £12 million,” Andrew says. “Haskins very much has the philosophy of not necessarily wanting to be the biggest garden center chain but rather be very selective about our sites in terms of the demographics that we’re looking to attract, so while we’ve expanded slower than some garden chains, it’s been a really conscious effort,” he continues. “Four of our centers follow a very similar, purpose-built layout. For our fifth and newest center, which we acquired in 2020, we have a long-term plan to demolish the existing building and rebuild a brand-new purpose-built estate. Our growth strategy is very much centered around acquiring a facility and putting our blueprint on it.”
Why Haskins is different
From its encyclopedic range of plants and seeds through to gifts and indoor and outdoor lifestyle products, Haskins’ catalogue features an unmatched assortment of home and garden merchandise, but its offering doesn’t end there. What truly differentiates Haskins is its emphasis on providing destination centers and exceptional experiences. Each of its five locations celebrates the very best of garden center greatness and, with its stunning restaurants, children’s play areas, and special amenities, the company champions a unified high-quality retail, dining, and leisure experience that transforms a mere transactional trip into a real day out for all the family.
“What we see as being integral to our success is the notion of why our customers would come to Haskins,” Andrew elaborates. “For this, we look at our main three areas that offer a point of difference – the first being our restaurants. Our restaurants have evolved to be a bigger part of what we do and they’re only going to continue to improve. They don’t take away from the products that we sell, but our restaurants are massively important to us, now making up just under 30 percent of our revenue. The second is plants: while plants are sold online, it’s hard to see what you’re buying. Finally, Christmas – coming into our cen-ters and enjoying a festive experience. We feel that these are the three things that separate garden centers from other retailers, and where we need to be relentless in our pursuit of excellence.
“We’re currently working on a big project called ‘Project Next Gen’, which is all about what the next 20 years will look like for Haskins,” he affirms. “Online sales have grown significantly over the last few years, but we are unapologetically brick-and-mortar focused. We still believe that shopping shouldn’t just be
transactional, but a pleasurable leisurely activity for people, and that’s where our niche is. Our job is to inspire our customers – to place items out in front of them that they didn’t know they wanted before visiting us. However, we need to make sure we move with the times and embrace technological advances when we feel they are right for our customers.”
In line with this core identity, Haskins consistently reinvests back into its centers to keep its customer experience best-in-class. By focusing on enhancing the in-store experience and continually evolving its offerings, the company is ensuring that its centers reflect the same sense of inspiration and leisure that has defined its brand for over 100 years. “Our strategy is very much to own freehold garden centers and heavily invest in them to offer our customers an exceptional experience. We undergo refits of our centers periodically; our West End center near Southampton, for instance, is having an extensive redevelopment this year,” Andrew reveals. “At the moment, we’re currently working on the restaurant and outdoor retail element, refitting a roof and a covered walkway, and over the summer, we’ll complete the interior. By the time the redevelopment is complete, it’ll be a £2 million investment. We aim to do something similar with our Roundstone center next year. Aside from these projects, the next big thing that we want to do is our Forest Lodge center, which we acquired in March 2020. As I mentioned earlier, we aim to knock down the existing center and completely rebuild a new center – a bespoke model – on the site. This project will be a £25 million to £35 million investment and we’re hoping to begin work before 2030.”
Forest Lodge
As Haskins’ most recent acquisition, Forest Lodge is the perfect addition to the business’ existing portfolio and, when the redevelopment is complete, it’ll further exemplify the leisurely in-store experience that Haskins is known for. Complementary to its Forest Lodge site, however, Haskins invested in a brand-new venture: Birdworld.
Birdworld is a beautiful, bird-focused zoo and visitor attraction that Haskins acquired alongside Forest Lodge in March 2020. Guests can expect to get up close with a wide range of bird species, from parrots to penguins, flamingos, spoonbills, owls, and more, whilst enjoying two state-of-the-art play centers and cafes. Though the pandemic posed challenges, Haskins has invested around £10 million into Birdworld over the last 18 months and is excited to see what it could bring to the wider business in the future.
Building upon these investments in destination-led experiences, Haskins is also turning its attention to how its retail offering can further evolve. By refining and expanding its product range, the business aims to offer a more curated and distinctive in-store selection, further strengthening its appeal to in-store customers. “In the garden center word, the categories that we’ve sold have been quite static for a number of years, so we intend to expand and diversify our offerings – clothing, for instance, is one area that we’d like to grow further. We’re looking at better curating our product range in terms of having less SKUs and more authority in what we do. When you go to a garden center, it can be quite overwhelming with all the products that are on offer, so we’re working to offer a bit more clarity on our shop floors,” Andrew details. “Alongside this, we’re also looking at increasing the number of products that are only available at Haskins, whether that’s through our own branding or through exclusive products. We’re being mindful of giving people reasons to visit us because they’ll find unique products that they won’t find anywhere else.”
As Haskins continues to invest, innovate, and refine its offering, its commitment to experiential retail remains clear. By staying true to its heritage while embracing thoughtful evolution, the business is well-positioned to inspire its next generation of customers and reinstill joy back in the shopping experience.