BENTS CELEBRATES BACK TO BACK SUCCESS IN NATIONAL AWARDS #Blog

Briony Wilson
4th February 2019

Bents Garden & Home has once again taken on some of the country’s most well-known and respected garden centre retailers to be acknowledged as the UK’s Best Destination Garden Centre 2018/19.

It is the second consecutive year that the family owned and run business has been presented with the prestigious title by the Garden Centre Association (GCA) – which comprises over 190 members – and the 6^th time in total that the Centre has held the award.

Bents, which includes attractions such as its Fresh Approach Restaurant, Mediterranean style Tapas Bar, Pet Café, Indoor Beach and Jurassic Cove Adventure Golf Course, has also been acknowledged as a GCA Garden Centre of Excellence, one of only ten in the country.

Like all member centres, Bents received a surprise spot visit by GCA inspectors and recorded the top score in the country, which not only saw them awarded Best Destination Garden Centre in the UK but also the national titles for Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer and the Barton Grange Trophy for Creativity and Innovation.

Says Matthew Bent, Managing Director at Bents Garden & Home:  “What a fantastic way to start the year! We have a great team of colleagues who work extremely hard in all areas of the business and this award is dedicated to them as a thank you for all their input.”

The award is extremely important within the garden centre industry; centres don’t pay to enter or put themselves forward and members are visited by inspectors with no prior knowledge of the exact date to ensure standards remain high at all times.  The audit process includes a detailed inspection of all CGA member centres, including all departments and people and then presents each centre with an annual breakdown of findings.

Says Matthew: “The annual audit focusses on quality standards throughout the centre, not only of products and departments, but also people and service.  We work hard to ensure standards improve year on year; an approach which has been rewarded by this latest accolade.”