NEWS FEED
Management courses grow at Stewarts Garden Centres
A garden centre whose origins can be traced back to 1742 is investing in management training in keeping with its current expansion.
Terry Head, Retail and Marketing Director at Stewarts Garden Centres, has been presented his certificate following an 18-month course for developing business leaders endorsed by the Institute of Leadership and Management.
A further six of Stewart’s centre managers and senior team members are currently pursuing an eight-day Management Development course running for 12 months.
Lindsay Muir, Director of Warwickshire based training company Cedar Associates, congratulated Terry on his success.
The company is now set to provide a further three courses for supervisors from all of its centres, including staff from the recently acquired Abbey Garden Centre at Titchfield, and the Christchurch and Wimborne centres, that will involve planning exercises with focus on time and resources management.
“This training helps to ensure that we maintain our standard and values for the benefit of our customers,” said Terry Head. “Lindsey and Cedar Associates have been actively developing courses encouraged by the Garden Centre Association, to develop the professional standing within our sector of retail. Becoming a bigger business should not limit our focus on customer service.”
The passion for horticulture (the company still operates commercial nurseries) has been in the Stewarts family for eight generations. The business can be traced back to 1742. Stewarts claim to have created the earliest dedicated garden centre opened in Ferndown in 1955 before their first out of town centre at Christchurch opened in 1961.
