Paul Cheema has transformed the front of his family’s Nisa store into a garden centre selling more than 100 varieties of plants.
The Coventry-based store has always sold a small number of flowers and plants, but after garden centres were forced to close as a result of the coronavirus lockdown in March, ‘Malcolm’s Stores’ increased its range by 70% and now sells 110 different plants, olive and palm trees, and compost.
The initiative had been a “tremendous success” but Cheema admitted it came about by chance. “Our flower supplier came to us and said they having to close down following the lockdown,” said Cheema. “He offered me 600 bunches of flowers to clear his stock, which we sold in a two for £5 deal.
“They sold out that day. After that two growers offered me bedding plants, olive trees, palm trees and red robins. It grew from there.”
With the help of a knowledgeable shop assistant and two other members of staff deployed outside full-time, Cheema is even selling nine-foot palm trees at £279, as well as tomato plants popular with children being home-schooled.
Customers have a separate pay point outside the store to pay for garden centre items. A delivery service is also available.
Cheema used Facebook to help spread the word, linking his ‘Malcolm’s Store’ page to a new ‘Malcolm’s Garden Centre’ page to maximise exposure.
It’s been hard work, with Cheema waking up at 3am to purchase hard-to-source compost, he added, but it was worth it. “We believe if you do it you have to do it properly,” he said. “We have adapted to what our customer wants. So rather than focus on toilet roll and flour we thought outside the box, and it’s been a great money maker.”
Cheema refused to disclose figures, but did say the revenue generated from the plants warranted three members of his 15-strong team working full-time outside in the ‘garden centre’.
He plans to continue selling this volume of plants for the foreseeable future and had already placed orders for Christmas trees, he added.
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