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Recorded live at Glee 2025, our latest Underground episode with Paul Pleydell (Pleydell Smithyman) and Barry Knight (The Full Range) boils success down to something very simple: give people a visit they want to talk about, then back it up with food and service that feel worth paying for. This post turns that conversation into a set of practical steps for owners, directors and managers who want to see results now, not in some distant plan.

Start with the “guess what?” test

Paul framed it neatly: “I went to XXXX garden centre and guess what?” If your customers cannot finish that sentence, you have work to do. It is a powerful test because it forces focus. What is the one thing that makes your place shareable, even in a short conversation at the school gate or in the queue at work?

Paul’s steer is clear: “Make sure you’re doing things you’re memorable for.” Do not spread effort across fifteen small ideas. Choose one or two signature moments and make them unmissable. Which leads to the next point.

Be famous for something small, then build around it

Signature moments do not need big capital. They need intent. In cafés, Paul suggests a single dish that people will cross town for: “If you’ve got a café, have a signature dish you’re famous for… a lemon meringue pie a foot high.” Your version might be giant scones, a seasonal traybake, a children’s ice cream sundae that arrives with a small flourish. Pick one. Name it. And make it famous. Train the team to point it out.

Outside food, the same logic holds. A planting demo that runs on the hour. A handwashing tap and step stools that make family visits easier. These are small, human touches that build stories.

Win on experience when you cannot win on price

No independent will out-buy the larger chains, Barry is matter of fact about that: “You might not always win on price, but you should always win on customer experience and attention to detail.” Value is felt, not just calculated. Customers will pay fairly when the visit feels considered from start to finish.

Where to look for those feelings of value:

Attention to detail: attentive knowledgeable staff, clean crockery, quick clear-down, full water jugs.
Flow: sightlines into key categories, logical routes that do not backtrack, clear wayfinding to the café and loos.
Time well spent: shaded seating, a safe corner for buggies, somewhere for children to draw while adults finish their tea.

None of this requires a rebuild. It requires walking the site as a customer would, then acting.

Food is your margin engine

Barry is blunt: hospitality should lead on margin. That only happens when the offer is tight and the operation is disciplined. You are not competing with grand hotels. You are competing with a quick lunch at home. As Paul puts it, “You’re competing with the simplicity of an air fryer at home. So why should people get up and come to you?”

A few practical suggestions:

Make the display do the selling. Mouthwatering bakery displays, neat portions, clear allergen advice.
A quality coffee offering. Barry puts it plainly: “let’s serve a good cup of coffee,” not just the convenience route where you “push a button, to keep things flowing.” If you get a hot drinks offer right: teas, coffees, hot chocolates, that will be the highest margin that you make.
Source locally. “Garden centres have a real opportunity to work locally” via a strong local fruit & veg supplier who aggregates nearby producers. Pair that with “one local supplier… and potentially one national supplier,” which cuts the number of vehicles and can improve pricing through volume.

Do these basics and hospitality pulls its weight across the whole site: more dwell, more sales, better reviews.

Put numbers behind the romance

Great experiences can and should be measured. Paul calls out the “dull but vital” part: look at EPOS and management accounts and make decisions from facts. You already have the data. Use it to trim the tail to make room for new profit centres.

Make it better before you make it bigger

Growth is tempting, especially after a good season. Paul’s advice is to sweat the space you’ve got first. Increase sales density, fix pinch points, and only then consider an extension. You will fund more of the next phase from cash if the current plans perform.

A 30-day action plan

You do not need a taskforce. You need a calendar and a few focused sprints.

Week 1: Walk and fix

Do the “pushchair, tray, shopping bag” walk from car park to café to till. List every friction point.
Remove one bay of slow stock.
Clean, paint, repair, tidy. Small jobs that change the feel.

Week 2: Launch the signature

Pick one hero item, ensure it’s memorable.
Train every café team member to talk about it in one sentence.
Put it on a small plinth by the till. Add it to the A-board outside.

Week 3: Service

Time the café queue at three points each day. Move kit or people to cut average waits.
Introduce a simple table touch-in: “Is everything alright, can I get you anything else?”
Add one small surprise for children, like a colouring card that links to a plant they can spot in the shop.

Week 4: Share and sell

Frame your “guess what?” moment in social posts and email. Use real photos, not stock.
Offer a midweek bundle that pairs the signature dish with a drink.
Ask for reviews at the till and reply to them personally.

What good looks like by the end of the quarter

Your team can say, without hesitation, what you are famous for.
Dwell time rises, and with it the attach rate on add-ons.
The café margin is steady and understood.
Customers start finishing the sentence for you.

Looking ahead

There is no silver bullet. There is a clear path. Focus on one or two memorable moments, get the basics right in food and flow, and back your choices with simple numbers. Do this and you build something that price alone cannot beat: a visit that feels worth it.

If you want a sounding board as you shape your “guess what?” moment, we’re here as a creative partner and trusted team. Let’s grow better, one practical change at a time.

Check out the full episode of The Underground Podcast, featuring Paul Pleydell (Pleydell Smithyman) and Barry Knight (The Full Range), below:

At Glee 2025 we spoke with Lee Connelly, the Children’s Gardening Coach, and Nigel Thompson, Sales & Marketing Director at Sipcam Home & Garden. The conversation was frank, practical and quietly ambitious. If you work in garden retail or supply, there are clear signals here about where demand is heading, how to reach it, and what to change in-store and in comms.

Schools are the future, not a photo op

Lee’s school tour put scale and intent behind a simple idea: get children gardening and support teachers long after the van pulls away. In one week he reached 10,000 pupils across 30 schools, including a 600-pupil activation in Manchester, with a plan to keep the link alive with staff who carry the work forward. “We got 10,000 children gardening in just one week,” he says, before stressing the importance of continued support.

The feedback matters. Teachers reported pupils starting gardens at home and described it as some children’s “best day… all year.” The lesson for brands is to design programmes with continuity baked in. One-off classroom selfies do not build future gardeners. Ongoing teacher contact does.

Garden centres as family destinations

Many centres have embraced school links and holiday programming, though some activity is still ad hoc. As Lee put it, too many efforts amount to “a bag of compost and some pots on the side and hoping that that will do.” The opportunity is to curate small, repeatable activities that give families a reason to dwell, loop the store, and return.

Lee has also softened earlier views of garden centres, now seeing them as vital community hubs with expertise on tap. “They have such an important job to bring community together,” he says, pointing to simple on-site activities that keep children engaged while adults shop.

Greener gardening, proven

Sipcam’s focus at Glee was “greener gardening” presented in language consumers and staff can use. The balance between sustainability and efficacy is handled through trial data rather than slogans. For ecofective® Nourish & Bloom, Nigel highlights seven strains of bacteria with a track record in professional lawn applications. “We can stand behind that rather than we’ve just developed these products, fingers crossed.”

The market is ready to hear it. “It feels a lot easier to have that conversation,” Nigel says, noting how retailers now understand peat-free challenges and opportunities with more nuance.

A challenger’s advantage

Sipcam’s approach is iterative and open to critique. That posture allows faster moves on brand and range. “You can roll the dice a little bit sometimes and… adjust,” Nigel says, contrasting the freedom of a challenger with the defensive posture of a category leader.

The new Nourish & Bloom sub-brand is a case in point. Early buyer reactions at Glee were strong. “Nourish & Bloom has been the talking point,” says Nigel, because it combines clearer benefits with a brighter, more emotive presentation that “puts a smile on a buyer’s face.”

Houseplants: Presentation and proof

With Fito, Sipcam is repositioning houseplant care for a discerning, often younger, audience that looks for simple direction and a packaging that fits an aesthetic. As Nigel reminds us, “the Fito brand was the first to bring drip feeders to the UK market, 20 odd years ago.” The job now is to update the offer and education for how people actually buy and care indoors.

Partnerships that ring true

Perhaps the clearest signal for marketers is how Sipcam activated with schools. This was not a cheque and a logo. Staff volunteered locally and joined school days in person. “The best days I’ve spent this year at work have been genuinely in schools,” says Nigel. Authenticity travels. Retail buyers notice when a brand does the hard yards.

What to do next

Start with intent. If you want younger customers and future colleagues, set a three-year schools plan with teacher follow-up, not a campaign window. Build small, reliable family activities into the store calendar. When you talk greener gardening, show your working. Bring data. Make it easy for staff to explain. And if you are a challenger, use the advantage. Test, learn, adjust.

As Lee puts it, the goal is to create memories that stick. Those memories become the prompt for a purchase next season, a workshop next summer, or a career choice in a few years’ time. That is a strategy worth investing in.

Check out the full episode of The Underground Podcast, featuring Lee Connelly, The Children’s Gardening Coach, and Nigel Thompson, Sales & Marketing Director, Sipcam Home & Garden, below:

Make it memorable:

Practical ways garden centres can win on value