It's that time of year when Barton Grange is busier than Santa's workshop.
Work has already started on the Preston garden centre's famous annual display, and our reporter Hannah Bridgeman went along to check on progress
Work has already started on the Preston garden centre's famous annual display, and our reporter Hannah Bridgeman went along to check on progress
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00:00 Hi, I'm David. I've worked at Boundary Grange for 18 years. My position is the display team
00:18 manager. And you've created all these decorations here. Where does the inspiration come from?
00:24 Our inspiration comes from various things. We pre-plan our colour combinations before
00:28 we go looking for a product. And then when we've found a product, we put our conceptual
00:33 ideas together, how we think we want it to look visually. And then as a team, we work
00:38 together to put out a design concept. And then once we've approved that concept, then
00:42 we go into production of everything that we need to do to create that.
00:46 And you've been doing this for 19 years? Yeah, 18 and a half, getting close to 19 now.
00:50 How do you make sure it's different every year to keep people coming back?
00:54 I think our process behind that is try to improve each year. We analyse everything when
01:00 we've done it, how we can make it better the following year. If there's a particular colour
01:04 scheme that's worked particularly well, do we want to repeat that and add something else
01:08 to it to give it a different twist? So we're always open to new ideas and that's one of
01:12 the reasons we believe that we're continually successful as a business.
01:22 So when we're doing our buying process and we've decided what we want to do for this
01:24 coming year, we produce a plan and I look at the plan layout and think to myself, which
01:30 of my team members would be the best one to achieve the concept that we've come up with?
01:37 And then they go away, put their ideas together, and then we come back and say, yeah, we're
01:42 going to go with that. And then they have responsibility for their own room. And by
01:46 giving staff their own responsibility, it makes them more passionate to come up with
01:51 something really amazing.
01:57 I've done the one down here this time. So this one is called Crystal Snowflake, obviously
02:03 influenced by snow. We wanted to make it a little bit more kiddie related to this time.
02:10 So obviously the starting point for our display this time was this bad boy here. Obviously
02:15 he's an animated snowman. Obviously he's waving, so he's waving to the children as they come
02:20 in, as soon as they walk through the door. Again, we wanted to create the ambience all
02:25 up in the ceiling. We wanted to use a variety of different stuff, lots of lights. It's a
02:30 very on-trend colour combination. And we've gone for pale blue, turquoise, copper, and
02:36 a little dash of orange in here, which is quite an unusual combination for a kind of
02:40 snow theme. And that's our basic idea in here.
02:46 Yeah, so our part is the ceiling there. Getting the blackout in, and all the twinkly lights
02:54 in. And that is the best part of the week, to do that.
02:59 And how many people do you have working on this?
03:01 Well there's four of us currently. Four slash five people doing it, one week.
03:08 It takes a lot of work. So there's a lot of work behind it. There's a lot of prep work.
03:22 So as you can see in the main greenhouse, that takes maybe one to two weeks to kind
03:27 of fully empty and then blackout. So there is a lot of prep work. And obviously we have
03:32 to wait for the orders to come in as well, which I was waiting for, so they're still
03:35 on the way. So it's never as straightforward as just, yeah, we're going to set it up. There's
03:40 a lot of background work into it. Not just for the last week, but for the garden centre
03:45 as well.
03:46 In artificial, anything that's got snow, glitter or berries is a big thing right now. And as
03:57 big and full as possible. Real trees?
04:01 Real trees, traditionally the Norman trees, because they're quite bushy, very traditional.
04:07 The needles hold. But what's becoming quite popular at the moment is Fraser firs, because
04:13 they're quite highly scented. So a lot of customers are now buying into that, because
04:18 they're quite slim line, they smell very nice. They're becoming quite popular around the
04:22 world.
04:23 To be fair, Barton Granger have always been very known for having the best Christmas displays.
04:27 We always put our all into it. We put a lot of planning into it, so that makes a huge
04:32 difference. And we get involved with the display team as well, which do put that bit of a sparkle
04:37 on top of some of the displays.
04:39 The whole area, the whole ambience is different.
04:41 Absolutely, yeah. So this area, for example, this will be at the start, we'll be starting
04:46 the Christmas light show. So from the very start, you'll be able to walk all the way
04:51 around. It'll be a magical section, full of music, full of lights, and full of Christmas
04:56 decorations.
04:57 Already sold in late now.
04:58 So we've planned it for months. We start at the beginning of May, planning the food, up
05:12 until putting it out in September. Yeah, and then there's about a week turnaround. So we
05:18 wait for deliveries to come in, and then put it straight out.
05:21 And what would you say is your best sellers?
05:23 I think it is, because everything can live as well, hasn't it? The tins, obviously, are
05:30 more Christmas pick up kind of thing. We like to keep the Christmas tin, so they do well,
05:34 tin biscuits. But we also have the coffee and tea, but all sorts.
05:39 Yeah, hamsters do really well.
05:41 Yeah, to be honest, probably things like that, wouldn't they?
05:44 And gold coins.
05:45 Yeah, so a lot of gold coins.
05:47 It's a great sense of pride for the garden centre, and also for the team who help produce
06:02 it. And there's a vast majority of people that get involved at every level through the
06:06 business to make this actually happen.
06:08 And just when do you start the preparations for all of the decorations?
06:12 We'll start looking at the colour combinations probably early December this year. We go on
06:16 our first trip 7th, 8th and 9th January the next year. By the end of February, beginning
06:22 of March, everything will have already been bought. And then we start all over again.
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