Nisa-Today’s is breaking into the garden centre sector in a bid to diversify into new business areas in 2011.

The buying group is ­currently supplying a fine food store at Johnson’s Garden Centre in Boston, Lincolnshire. The “concept store”, said group sales director Andrew Mouse, was to “show we can do garden centres properly”.

Nisa had also had ­meetings with the Royal Horticult­ural Society about the store and the possibility of supplying more garden centres and it had liked the concept, he said. “Tesco didn’t buy Dobbies because it liked plants it bought it to sell food,” Mouse said. “Garden centres are selling more and more food so we want to be there.”

There was “no opportunity Nisa-Today’s wouldn’t look at”, he added.

Johnson’s Garden Centre MD David Isaac said Nisa offered his business “regular, timely deliveries and a range of products to be proud of”. He added that it “offered the all-round qualities we desired, while allowing us the independence to continue the garden centre’s tradition of quality, service and value”.

Nisa-Today’s signed up 193 new members last year a total of 450 new stores adding £100m of turnover to its business.

It now wants to grow the business in key areas such as Ireland, South West England and London, and hoped to attract 200 new members this year. Within the next few weeks it is expected to announce a new member from the discount sector.

It is also expected to convert its 500th store to the Store of the Future format imminently. The format includes a white fascia, contemporary window graphics and new internal furnishings and layout. It currently has 495 stores in the format and has been converting an average of four stores a week for the past two years.

Meanwhile, DHL took full control of Nisa-Today’s distribution from Bibby Line Group last weekend. The handover had been “seamless” said distribution director Jon Stowe.

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