Official Statement From All-In-One Garden Centre Shareholders (27-02-2020)

As many people may be are aware following an announcement made to our staff earlier this month, we have unfortunately had to make the very difficult decision to put our family business premises up for sale.
After trading successfully for almost 49 years, in more recent years, the business has faced mounting financial pressures due to the big shift to online purchases from multi-million pound worldwide businesses, plus large nationwide gardening and DIY chains and home stores incorporating whole garden centre departments within their stores.

The shift towards these cheaper national and international buying habits has unfortunately made things difficult for us to maintain our wider range of products on offer and have halted any expansion to our ranges. Over the past few years we've had to look carefully at each department and in a bid to remain here for the long term, we've had to take the decision to reduce underperforming lines. Unfortunately, times are not set to change and the shift towards online buying is still in growth, now more than ever. Price seems to prevail over quality, which is something we have always been proud to oppose.

I'm sure many of you remember our opening days 49 years ago from very humble beginnings and with the help of our staff over the years, we built a very successful family orientated and family run business. It goes without saying that the decisions made to bring this era to an end have not been taken lightly. The news has been met with profound disappointment but great empathy from our loyal and hardworking staff.

We feel it important to address some of the malicious, cruel and contemptuous comments and mistruths made on social media from some ignorant and self-serving individuals in the community.
Yes, it is true that 8 staff out of 29 have been made redundant. The remaining staff have not been issued with any notice period of redundancy.
It is not true that the garden centre is closing in 90 days time.
We are continuing in the meantime to trade until a suitable buyer is found. Our team will continue to provide freshly prepared food, grow and sell our home-grown plants with pride and serve as always, the gardening public and loyal customers in our community.
When a new owner is found, the future of the site will be their concern

We would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to all of our customers and staff- present and past for their kind words of support and understanding and for being part of the All-In-One family.