Who doesn’t love a visit to the garden centre? It’s one of life’s pleasures to potter amongst the plants looking for seasonal inspiration. According to the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), there are over 200 million visits to garden centres every year in the UK. It’s big business, but there’s also an unwelcome set of customers popping into garden shops these days… and it’s not just to browse the bedding plants and enjoy a cream tea.
Opportunistic pilfering, entrepreneurial shoplifters and, more sinisterly, organised crime groups, have come knocking at the door of horticultural retail. As a result, it’s estimated that Britain's 1500 garden centres lose £16 million a year to thievery. “It is a costly crisis, with thefts now commonplace, negatively impacting both the bottom line and retail staff in garden centres across the UK,” says Jennifer Pheasey, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the HTA.
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So what kind of products are being pinched? Seed packets are the most commonly swiped items. That’s followed by secateurs and hand tools. All easily slip into pockets and bags when nobody is looking. High-value lifestyle products, such as gifts (soft toys, notably the Jellycat brand, are particularly vulnerable to kidnap). Poplar Tree Garden Centre in County Durham recently reported a shoplifting spree worth £800 in a single day, while Tates of Sussex Garden Centres alleged that a group had run off with more than £2000 in goods from two of its centres on two separate occasions. It’s getting to the point that 71 per cent of HTA member garden centres believe that customer theft is now a ‘major issue’. “Over 90 per cent of HTA members are SMEs, facing significant and growing cost pressures, whilst needing to up their investment and find resources to tackle the upward trend in retail crime,” says Jennifer Pheasey.
Nathan Wilson, Head of Group Security & Total Loss at Blue Diamond, the largest garden centre group in the UK, operating in 55 destinations, says that there has been a rise in thefts for a number of reasons. “Covid had a big impact on the increase,” he says. “Shops closed and only supermarkets, DIY stores and garden centres remained open. Your typical shoplifter couldn’t go to the high street to steal as that revenue stream had been cut off. This drew them into garden centres and, once in, they realised what products we sell and that they could easily be sold on. The cost of living has had an impact across the country on shoplifting too. Although I don’t feel that this has impacted garden centres as much as other retailers as the items that are being stolen are not everyday necessities.” Nathan cites soft toys, wax melts, watering products, weedkiller and BBQ accessories as unlawful takehomes from Blue Diamond stores. Large items, such as olive trees, are also at risk. “We have even had people walk out with Kamado BBQs that are expensive and heavy,” he says.
We have even had people walk out with Kamado BBQs
“Several forces are driving the rise in shrinkage across the sector,” adds Joe Wilkinson of Garden Centre Retail, the UK’s leading business-to-business media brand for the garden centre sector. “Economic pressure is a major factor, with customers feeling the strain of higher living costs and some turning to opportunistic theft of small, high‑value items such as tools, accessories, and premium houseplants. At the same time, the physical nature of garden centres with expansive outdoor areas, multiple entry points, and high‑traffic seasonal zones creates opportunities for stock to be removed unnoticed.”
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If one digs a little deeper into who steals from garden centres, the facts will surprise you. Nathan Wilson categorises the crooks into four groups. The Opportunist: predominantly 60, 70, 80-year-olds who take seeds and candles; the Entrepreneurial Shoplifter who comes in with a shopping list to steal branded products and then heads home to sell them on online forums; the Career Thief who targets specific items on their visits and are in and out as quickly as possible. “We recently had a male that stole £7100 over six visits. He was wearing an ankle tag and was identified by the police as a prolific shoplifter. He is awaiting court over this.” And, finally, Organised Crime Groups: “We work with Operation Opal, the UK’s national police intelligence unit for Serious and Organised Acquisitive Crime, to support their tracking of OCGs across the country,” adds Nathan Wilson.
We recently had a male that stole £7100 over six visits
“Reports of theft are absolutely constant,” says Peter Burks, Chief Executive of The Garden Centre Association (GTA), who represents more than 220 UK garden centres. The seeming lack of support from police has driven owners to take matters into their own hands. Over the last 18 months, Blue Diamond has spent over £1 million on upgrading its CCTV to a centrally managed HikVision system. “We have also put facial recognition (FR) and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) in place. As a result, we’ve reduced the overall shrinkage by nearly half [47 per cent],” says Nathan Wilson, who adds that 184 incidents have been reported to the police.
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Other approaches, recommended by the GTA, include signage, repositioning items close to the till, avoiding ‘red routes’ and training staff in the psychology of how to prevent and tackle difficult situations. Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) also protects products through hard or soft tags that activate when going through an exit. “These are more as a deterrent for your opportunist thief. The professional thief will either remove these tags or use things to block the signal and remove them afterwards,” says Nathan Wilson.
It appears that crime is prevalent and costly to the horticulture industry. Who would have thought that Big Brother surveillance technology may just be watching you when you next pop in to pep up your borders. Is the strategy working? “100 per cent,” says Nathan Wilson. “We are seeing a reduction in theft and violent incidents in our centres which is making them a safer place to work and shop.”
