Boost for garden centre Christmas sales

British Retail Consortium figures showed UK retail sales values at their worst for a year, down 0.1 per cent like-for-like on October 2011.

BDO's October High Street Sales Tracker showed like-for-like sales rose 0.9 per cent year-on-year.

Alton Garden Centre director Andy Bunker said: "Sales were poor apart from Christmas." North One Garden Centre owner Beryl Henderson added: "October was a little bit disappointing but August and September were 30 per cent up."

Garden Centre Association Sales figures