How staff prepare Gates Garden Centre for Christmas

Such are the logistical challenges of preparing Gates Garden Centre for its stunning Christmas displays that preparations for this festive season started last December.

The site, at Cold Overton, is a destination shopping venue all year round but it moves up another level over the Christmas period.

Indoors, the garden furniture and general household items are moved out and in come dozens of sparkling festive trees and decorations.

The farm shop is stocked with lot of delicious seasonal treats and the shopping areas are packed with a huge range of gifts.

This year’s theme is ‘World of Christmas’ with families challenged to get their Gates Passport stamped at various locations festively dressed to represent different nations.

Customers can buy tractor baubles for the tree to raise money for selected charities - LOROS, Matt Hampson Foundation, EMICS, Rainbows, The Bridge and Cancer Active Recovery Support (CARS), with £2 from every sale going to one of the causes.

Marketing manager, Claire Parker, told the Melton Times: “We started preparing in December last year and we always pick a theme in January or February.

“Interest starts in the summer when we begin getting emails asking when we are opening our Christmas displays.

“We started installing Christmas early in October and customers were already buying gifts and decorations.”

She added: “Only 10 to 15 years ago we didn’t really do much for Christmas.

“It started when we began selling Christmas trees and now it’s become a huge thing that we do.”

It is all a far cry from the origins of the business in 1948, when Fred and Ivy Gates sold fruit and veg off the road and made hanging baskets for local pubs.

The site has expanded vastly in recent years to include national brands like Lakeland and has become one of the nation’s most highly rated garden centres.

Turnover is around £18M a year and business at its sister Gates Woodlands Hinckley site has doubled to about £10M since it was acquired.

The Cold Overton site sells millions of pounds worth of plants every year and these sales continue through the winter months, particularly the poinsettias grown on the site.

The adjacent farm continues to supply much of the stock, including beef and lamb and other products for the farm shop.

Gates has more than 300 members of staff during the year with an additional 50 employed over the busy Christmas period.

Many have worked there a long time including several members of the same families.

Claire added: “It is a lovely atmosphere when we get the log fires going in the restaurants and the music starts playing around the centre.

“It does get busy at weekends but if people come in the early evenings it will be quieter for them.

“We get a lot of late Christmas shoppers coming in on Christmas Eve, including plenty of gentlemen in a mad panic because they’ve left it late to get their gifts.”

Visitors this year can enjoy fairground rides and pop-up street food and there is an opportunity for families to have breakfast or lunch with Santa Claus.

During November, Gates Garden Centre is open 8am to 7pm, from Monday to Saturday, closing at 5pm on Sundays.

It stays open until 7.30pm through December up to the 23rd.

There is a free bus from Melton Mowbray on Saturdays.