Grow your own fruit & veg sales soar at Dobbies

11th May 2009 15:20

Further confirmation of Britain's determination to dig its way out of recession has come in the form of record sales at Dobbies, the garden centre chain bought by Tesco last year.The gardening chain, which has 24 stores in Scotland and England, reported record annual sales of its "grow your own" range of fruit and vegetables, with the value of sales up 82% on the previous year.The company said it has sold more than 100,000 tomato plants in the last two months alone.'We have responded to the surge in demand for Grow Your Own by complementing new products with demonstrations, workshops and presentations to customers and schools,' said James Barnes, chief executive of Dobbies.The surge in demand for food seeds - believed to have surpassed sales of flower seeds nationally for the first time in decades - helped boost takings at Dobbies by 12% to £97m.The news backs up the claims of fertiliser company William Sinclair, which last week claimed that 'the increased fashion towards growing your own vegetables is having a further benefit to the company.'Gardeners are donning their green wellies and setting to work with spade and hoe in response to the worsening economic climate, which has made belt-tightening a priority, and rampant food price inflation, which was running as high as 9% year-on-year in March before easing to 7.9% in April.