Recruitment Crisis causes nursery to give away £100,000 of garden plants free

A local family-run garden centre business is being forced to giveaway £100,000 worth of Garden Plants for FREE this weekend as they cannot recruit enough nursery staff to look after the plants if returned to their nurseries for the winter.

Team leader Matt Pollard explains “In any usual year we would return these plants to our nursery to cut them back and grow them on for future years. This year it is simply not an option as like many businesses in our sector and the region we can’t find enough staff to work at our nurseries. It is a constant battle to recruit skilled staff in the current climate resulting in this decision to simply give the plants away. With the advent of Brexit and the departure of many European staff from the UK, we are suffering the same problem as many other businesses in the South West in finding suitable staff who want to work. We are very keen to hear from potential employees looking for a career in retail horticulture both here in Devon and at our Yeovil nurseries and they can contact us at jobs@growndirect.co.uk but we also need a sensible government scheme for horticulture to employ European staff on a seasonal or contract basis if UK workers don’t want this type of work”.

“We hope the giveaway of these plants will allow our customers the opportunity to pick up some free plants. There’s no catch - simply turn up and load your car with as many plants as you get fit in. First come first served. We just need to move the plants on to a good home.

The FREE plants will be located in the car parks of all three of our Plants Galore stores at Plymouth, Newton Abbot and Exeter - see our website www.growndirect.co.uk for directions to stores – giveaway starts 8am on Friday 13th August.