The awards, organised Ideal Home – the British home decorating magazine aim to reward the best in home and garden sectors. Judged by industry experts and editors, there are awards for Kitchen, Bathroom, Living Room, Bedroom and, new for 2024, Garden to shine a spotlight on the garden products, innovations and designs that deliver.
According to Ideal Home judges, Hillier was awarded Garden Retailer of the Year on account of its brand built around delivering industry-leading expertise and horticultural knowledge, as well as customer service, top-tier plants, trees and garden accessories. Now with 22 garden centres, Hillier grows over one million plants at its Peat-free Hampshire nursery, is the largest grower of semi-mature trees in the UK and Ireland, and online shop servicing gardeners all across the country.
The garden retailer’s winning entry focused on the company’s flourishing story over the last few years, its commitment to sustainability and passionate support and advocacy for the industry. Hillier’s heritage in the gardening world is well documented, with the story beginning 160 years ago.
Hillier’s Chairman, George Hillier said: “It’s fantastic to be part of something so special as Ideal Home’s first-ever Garden Awards, and to take home the win in its inaugural year is a real accolade. We are constantly striving to reach new heights of customer service and unrivalled products, but to have that recognised by an external source is a great source of pride and testament to the amazing work from the Hillier team and our unwavering commitment to the garden retail industry. We are sure that winning this award will allow us to continue inspiring people to invest time in their green spaces as a part of their homes.”
The awards recognised the company’s recent successes with turnover up 32.4% in 2023, the launch of its online shop, the substantial redevelopment of Hillier Garden Centre Newbury and the acquisition of the Rosebourne Garden Centre Group in November 2022, as well as sponsorship of BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair, and the free ‘Hillier Gardening Club’ loyalty program which now has over half a million members.
“It’s good to see that the retailer is making increased efforts towards environmental responsibility, with a commitment to going peat-free, and to reducing carbon emissions, chemical use, and energy and water consumption across the business” added Amy Lockwood, Ecommerce Editor, Ideal Home.
All the winners of the Ideal Home Garden category are listed here, which includes the likes of Stihl, Hozelock and John Lewis.