Low
profitability cause for sale
Louis
Delhaize used its French subsidiary Truffaut in 1997 to get into
Garden and Leisure, turning the chain into one of the UK’s largest
garden centres. Nevertheless, it was not a success, as it proved
difficult to get a decent profitability, leading to several years of
rumours of a possible sale.
Investment
group Terra Firma, owners of The Garden Centre Group, managed to
reach an agreement with Louis Delhaize for the British chain of
garden centres. It is not the first acquisition for The Garden Centre
Group this year, as the company had bought the Bolton Garden Centre in
June and had Cheddar Garden Centre and Lechlade Garden Centre only
recently.
The
Garden Centre Group feels that the Garden and Leisure garden centres
match well with its other centres, with 90 % of its Garden Centre
products coming from British soil.
