John Stanley

At this time of year, a host of trend reports come out from around the world forecasting how the next twelve months is going to be. I’m told the word of the year in America, and one I have seen in reports already is that 2024 will be “Indefatigable”. My first reaction was to get the dictionary out ( yes, not Google) and find

It takes time,patience and money to develop a new product. Once developed the least you can do is take pride in the product and what you have achieved. If you do not take pride in the product, the team will treat it as a commodity and eventually it will be sold on price rather than

Parti Kereszet is one of our garden centre clients in the north of Hungary. They have just finished their Christmas display and we thought we would share it with you. The aim is to inspire the customer and this is what they have achieved. Brilliant job

I don’t know about you, but I love simple ideas, the often obvious ideas that increase sales. When I hear them I often shrug my shoulders and think I knew that, but I have never used it as a selling technique I had one of those moments recently at a farmers market. More and more small

Over the month of September and early October I worked with clients in Europe, Asia and the Americas. This meant I saw a wide range of cultures and businesses in our post COVID world. Prior to COVID a lot of my consultancy was focused on creating the experience for the business to attract the visitor.  That has all changed, I’m not

I have just finished a week looking at agri tourism in Ireland, both on the east coast and Atlantic coast. The east coast has agricultural history with over 2,000 years of farming practices. Halloween or Samhain originated in the Boyne Valley during Celtic times and is still celebrated by farmers in the agritourism sector,whilst on the west coast

It has been eleven years since I have been in Hungarey. As expected a lot has changed. The most pleasant surprise is to see the Hungarian Garden Centre industry advance over this years and many independent garden centres are up there with some of the best in Europe. The outdoor plant area in many centres is inspiring and a place

A flight cancellation can bring benefits and a cancellation in Budapest meant I spent a day walking the streets of this city looking at retail ideas. Budapest is one of my favourite European cities.,It is very grand and Parliament House is one of the best in the world. But,the city also has some wonderful retail zones,the key

Garden Centres are traditionally horizontal businesses. One of the reasons for this was they were located on city fringes on wholesale nurseries, the land was relatively cheap and Baby Boomers were happy to drive into the country for a day of leisure. Zoom forward to 2023 and is this the right model? Danny Puan from