Data, Strategy, Design, Performance

What do you want to achieve?

This is about you. Your ambition. Your location. Your challenges. Your opportunities. And where you want to go.

Our approach always follows the same logic. First we understand the market potential. Then we measure how your garden centre performs today. Only then do we translate those insights into square metres, product range, building and realisation. Seven steps — you decide how far we travel together.

1. Decision Making Model
   Know the potential of your market before you invest.
   Decision Making Model
2. GCA StoreScan
   Measure and benchmark how your garden centre performs against the competition.
   GCA StoreScan
3. Store plan, building & realisation
   Turn insight into a floor plan, a building and a store that opens its doors.
   Store plan, building & realisation

First step: your market

Know the potential before you invest

“Our Decision Making Model translates market data into clear growth opportunities.”

Before we draw a single line, we want to understand your reality.

• Is there a solid business case behind your ambition?
• How many people live in your catchment area?
• What do they spend? How far are they willing to travel?
• Who are your competitors?
• How many square metres can your market actually support?

The Decision Making Model brings the relevant market indicators together: demographics, spending power, drive times, the competitive landscape, market penetration and historical performance. By combining these factors, we calculate the realistic turnover potential of a garden centre, compare locations and make visible where the strongest opportunities for sustainable growth lie.

The value of the model is not in the figures alone. We translate the analysis into concrete recommendations for site selection, investment, expansion, refurbishment and long-term development. Because we combine data with international retail, design and garden centre experience, we test every strategic decision against both the market potential and the operational reality.

Our philosophy is simple: measure, understand, decide. Better data leads to better decisions — and better decisions lead to stronger, future-proof garden centres.

Our market analysis in Tuinzaken, June 2026

Discover your market potential

Second step: your garden centre in the market

Measure. Benchmark. Improve.

“Measure today. Perform better tomorrow. We translate performance gaps into a clear growth strategy.”

We do not only look at figures — we look at reality. We go into the market together with you. We visit competitors. We walk through the stores. Not to see what looks attractive, but to understand what actually works in your situation.

With the GCA StoreScan we translate your garden centre into facts and figures. The scan works on two levels.

Level 1 — Performance of the store as a whole

We assess your garden centre on six core variables from our own evaluation model. Together these form a structured overall picture of the store and show where performance, customer experience or commercial effectiveness can be stronger.

Level 2 — Benchmark per department

Next we go into depth. Department by department, we compare and rank your store against relevant competitors within your own catchment area. That produces a detailed picture of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities to set yourself apart.

The aim is not to copy competitors. The benchmark shows where your garden centre needs to become more distinctive, where investment pays for itself and where adjustments in product range, presentation, routing or department strategy deliver a stronger market position.

• How do your customers move through the store?
• Where do they stop? What do they buy?
• Which departments perform below their potential?
• Where is available space not being used optimally?

From performance to strategy

The outcomes form the basis for a targeted improvement plan, a refurbishment strategy, a range policy, a masterplan or a completely new design.

• Scan
• Benchmark
• Opportunity report
• Masterplan
• Design & realisation
• Monitoring

First the facts. Then the action.

Request a GCA StoreScan

Third step: metre by metre

From floor plan to commercial blueprint

“Great garden centres do not happen by chance. They are designed for your customer, your market and your future.”

Now we go further than inspiration. We go into depth.

The entrance. The main route. The hotspots. The restaurant. Houseplants. Outdoor plants. Pots. Garden care. BBQ. Garden furniture. Pets. Christmas. Every department gets a place. Every department gets the right amount of space. And every square metre has to contribute to your success.

• How many metres for garden tools? How many for fertilisers? How many for pots?
• Which price points suit your customers?
• Which brands? Which suppliers?
• Which shelving systems? Which presentation?

We develop your garden centre down to the detail — metre by metre. Not to decide for you, but to show what is possible.

“Comparing. Challenging. Making visible what is missing. And then helping you make the best decision.”

Fourth step: designing the building

The building follows the store, not the other way around

“A garden centre is not a box with plants in it. The building is part of the sale.”

The floor plan is in place. Now we design the building around it. Not as a separate architectural exercise, but as the physical translation of your store plan: routing, department sizes and customer experience determine the shape of the building — not the other way around.

We design the structural set-up, the greenhouse construction and the transition between greenhouse and hard-build, the entrance and the facade, the daylight, the climate zones and the logistics behind the scenes. Every zone has its own requirements: houseplants need different conditions from garden furniture, and a restaurant asks for something different again from an outdoor sales area.

• Structural concept, construction and greenhouse set-up
• Entrance, facade and architectural appearance
• Daylight, screening, climate zones and energy
• Parking, access route, loading and unloading
• Hospitality, checkout area, offices and staff rooms
• Sustainability: insulation, water, energy and choice of materials

We develop the design up to and including the drawings needed for the planning permission application and the tender. Along the way we keep testing it against the commercial plan: every square metre of building has to contribute to the store or to the comfort of your customer.

“Design the building from the store outwards. Then the investment adds up as well.”

Discuss your building plan

Fifth step: meet the suppliers

From floor plan to product. Metre by metre.

Over the years we have built an international network of more than 100 specialised suppliers for the garden centre sector. From store fittings to signage. From displays to flooring. From pots to tools. From BBQ to pets. From garden furniture to complete department solutions.

We connect your plan to the right partners. Independent advice. Your decision.

As soon as the range strategy is clear, we link the floor plan directly to the suppliers. For every department — and ultimately for every metre of the floor plan — we determine the proposed supplier, brands, product groups and the products that go on the shelves. This creates one clear overview for sales and purchasing management, making visible how the core range — around 60% of the store — can actually look.

Not only where a department goes. But what we are actually going to sell there. From plan to reality. This gives us the information to determine:

• Metres per department
• Proposed suppliers and brands
• Product groups and shelf range
• Required shelving systems and shelves
• Number and type of fitting elements
• Estimated investment in stock
• Required opening stock
• Investment per department

The floor plan now becomes much more than just a drawing. It becomes a commercial and financial blueprint for the garden centre.

“How can you plan your store fit-out efficiently if you do not yet know which products will be on the shelves?”

By connecting square metres → product range → suppliers → products → fittings → investment, we can plan much earlier and make better decisions.

View our suppliers

Sixth step: building the building

From drawing to building

“We do not build ourselves. We make sure it is built the way it was conceived.”

Building is above all a matter of direction. We take that direction and have the work carried out by specialist partners from our network: greenhouse builders, contractors, installers and screen suppliers who know the garden centre sector from the inside.

During construction we safeguard three things at once: the commercial plan, the programme and the budget. If something changes along the way — and it does — we first assess the effect on the store before a decision is made.

• Tender, quotation comparison and selection of partners
• Programme and phasing, including rebuilding while the store stays open
• Construction management and site meetings on your behalf
• Safeguarding budget, quality and the original store plan
• Coordination between construction, store fittings and suppliers

Construction often runs in parallel with the fit-out. Because the floor plan, the product range and the suppliers are already fixed, shelving, flooring and installations arrive on site at the right moment. That saves time, noise and failure costs.

Schedule an introduction

Seventh step: fit-out & opening

From design to opening

Acacia Garden Center Dubai

The building is up. Now it becomes a store. Our realisation team coordinates the complete fit-out: store fittings, shelving, flooring, lighting, signage, displays, materials and installation — right through to filling the shelves and the opening.

But every journey is different. Sometimes you only need us for the design. Sometimes for the supply. Sometimes for one specific department. And sometimes you want us to deliver the complete project, from market analysis to opening.

“Design only. Supply only. Realisation only. Or everything, from the first idea to the opening. You decide how far we travel together.”

Discuss your project

Refurbishment & circular development

New build or refurbishment?

“Reuse what has value. Redesign what can perform better.”

Not every journey ends in new build. For many garden centres, refurbishment is the faster and more profitable route: the same seven steps, but inside — and around — the building that is already there.

Garden Center Advice specialises in refurbishment, repurposing and circular development: commercial optimisation combined with intelligent reuse of buildings and materials. We analyse the existing footprint, the customer journey, the routing, the performance per department, the architecture and your future commercial requirements. From there we determine what should be kept, improved, reused or replaced.

• Renew the facade, entrance and appearance without replacing the shell
• Improve the roof, daylight, insulation and climate
• Rethink routing and department layout within the same metres
• Convert storage and residual space into selling space
• Upgrade parking, access route and outdoor space
• Phasing so the store stays open during the works

Wherever possible, existing structures and materials are given a second life. That limits demolition, material use, CO₂ and investment — while at the same time increasing the commercial and architectural value of the property. Circular development should not look like a compromise: the customer has to experience a new garden centre, while valuable existing elements remain part of the solution.

Acacia Garden Center Dubai — climate-focused refurbishment

The existing roof let through too much sunlight, which in the desert climate resulted in an uncomfortable store and a heavy climate installation. Instead of demolition, the structure was kept and optimised: a new roof solution keeps out direct sunlight and creates a more pleasant, more atmospheric selling environment. Columns that obstructed sightlines were absorbed into the retail concept, finished in the colour of the shelving system and used as a place for hanging plants. A relatively modest intervention, with a big step forward in experience and commercial value.

Interflower Lokeren — from storage to selling space

At Interflower in Lokeren, an existing storage area was converted into a fully fledged pet department. Together with specialist Gebr. de Boon, the space was analysed metre by metre to maximise its commercial potential: new flooring, new shelving in a durable hardcoat oak finish from Datec and a coherent presentation. Routing, range strategy and sightlines were reconsidered as one retail system. By using the existing footprint instead of building on, unused space was turned into valuable selling metres.

We keep materials in circulation on new build projects too. For Edenia Garden Centre in Prague, steel columns and roof beams from the former structure of Intratuin Venlo were inspected, repaired and where necessary recoated, and then reused in a new garden centre of almost 3,000 m². Circular building does not have to look reused.

View all projects

Data, strategy and design in one team

• Our own market data
  International market databases and an in-house calculation model for turnover potential per location.
• Objective benchmark
  The GCA StoreScan measures your performance against the actual competition in your catchment area.
• Retail, architecture and delivery
  From masterplan and department layout to building design, facade, construction management and fit-out.
• International network
  100+ specialised suppliers and project experience in Europe and the Middle East

Insights from the garden centre sector

• How do you increase the turnover of your garden centre without expanding?
• Turnover per square metre: a better way to assess departments
• Greenhouse or hard-build? What the building does to your sales
• When do you refurbish a garden centre instead of building a new one?

Read our insights

Where does your journey begin?

Tell us about your location, your ambition and your biggest question. We will come back to you with a first picture of your market potential and the logical next step.

Request a consultation