The imminent arrival of the Tesco juggernaut in the garden centre industry could herald a new age for the sector and the growers who supply it.

Whether this represents a good or bad thing depends on your point of view. On the one hand it could be interpreted that Tesco sees the sector as a major potential growth area. It is rarely wrong about such things.

On the down side it could open the floodgates for all the large multiples to steam in, possibly to the detriment of the independent garden centre. It would be a travesty if smaller centres and retail nurseries were to disappear in the same way that independent grocers have in the food sector.

Meanwhile Wyevale have been amply demonstrating exactly why it is that some people dislike the multiples so much, by offering ornamental growers the ‘fantastic’ opportunity to demonstrate their support to the firm via what amounts to little more than a loyalty payment.

Sure, Wyevale make all the usual rhetoric about growing the business to swell suppliers’ coffers, but we’ve heard it all before. The story mirrors numerous that we’ve heard from other retailers in recent years.

The situation demonstrates again the urgent need for a solid and enforceable code of practice.