Perrywood celebrates first anniversary since taking over garden centre in Sudbury

Sudbury garden centre Perrywood is celebrating its first anniversary after buying the business last year from Wyevale in a deal valued at £1.1 million.

Perrywood has created 13 jobs at the Newton Road centre and increased the contractual hours of nine of the ex-Wyevale team, bringing the team to 34.

With an annual turnover of more than £10 million, the 30-year-old family business, which has its base in Tiptree, employs a total of 165 people across the two sites.

During the last year, the company has invested £100,000 in a new kitchen and coffee shop at its Sudbury business, offering customers cooked breakfasts, soup, hot lunches, sandwiches, cakes and scones.

Retail director Simon Bourne said: “We are absolutely delighted to be celebrating our first year in Sudbury. The community has been so welcoming to us and has really supported us since we took over. We have some regular and very loyal customers so we hope to see as many as possible in store to help us celebrate.”

He said that, during its first year in Sudbury, the team had turned the centre around by focussing on improvements, such as having ‘how-to’ leaflets available to customers, selling plants from Perrywood’s own grown range, and selling new and improved ranges of bird care, gloves, tools and plant pots.

To help celebrate its first anniversary, staff, who have been actively in involved in charitable work and in supporting Sudbury in Bloom, have been running promotions and social media competitions.

Sudbury garden centre manager Steve Wrodel and plant area expert Jane Elsden recently took part in a sponsored skydive, raising £1,035 for Colchester Hospital, which was matched by Perrywood, meaning that Perrywood donated £26,000 to charities during 2018.

In addition, the store has donated hundreds of pounds of gift vouchers, plants and products to local schools, charities and community groups.

The business is ranked at number three in the Garden Centre Association (GCA) league table of UK garden centres.