Sanders Garden World near Burnham-On-Sea could soon be sold to supermarket giant Tesco as part of a £300m nationwide deal, according national press reports this week.
The Times newspaper has this week reported that the UK’s biggest garden centre firm, The Garden Centre Group, which owns 131 garden centres including Brent Knoll’s Sanders Garden World, is to be sold by taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group, which took control of the business two years ago.
It has been reported that Tesco is one of a number of interested potential purchasers who could bid £300 million for the group.
Tesco took a controlling stake in Dobbies, another big garden chain, in 2008. Dobbies has previously said it has “ambitious growth plans to be a £1 billion business with 100 stores in 10 years.”
It is reported that Lloyds hopes to complete the sale by the end of the year. The bank is 41% owned by taxpayers and has recently increased its efforts to clean up its balance sheet by offloading non-core assets.
The Garden Centre Group is comfortably the biggest garden centre operator in the UK and employs 4,500 staff.
