British Garden Centres achieve a 46% increase in sales per labour hour using the Fourth platform

Customer Profile

With over 60 sites, British Garden Centres (BGC) is the largest family-run garden centre group in the UK. Combining both retail and hospitality, the brand manages a multi-skilled team working across areas as distinct as nurseries and concessions, as well as food venues ranging from a 600-seat restaurant to high-volume carveries and smaller cafes.

Locations: 60 | Employees: 3000

Challenges Faced

Renowned for friendly customer service, knowledgeable staff and multiple retail and hospitality offerings, British Garden Centre’s sites are destination venues in their own right. Often large venues, they are complex and require a number of specialist teams to operate.

Labour is the biggest cost for the group, yet the team had a challenge with reliably forecasting and proactively controlling labour spend.

• The team lacked the data and insight to identify inefficiencies in labour deployment.
• In the restaurants, managing and tracking supplier relationships for £10m in food purchases a year was complex and did not leverage the groups overall buying power.
• Restaurant inventory was managed in spreadsheets, a manual process that didn’t scale as BGC acquired more sites.

Solution

British Garden Centres selected Fourth as a technology partner to help set them up for success as they opened and acquired numerous new sites. Fourth’s Workforce Management was implemented in 2021, with Inventory Management following in 2023.

• Site managers are empowered to control their labour scheduling and accurately track spend against sales and budgets.
• With improved workforce management processes, site managers have more time to focus on their teams and customers.
• Fourth’s Inventory Management has transformed purchasing by fully digitising the process and enabling BGC to strengthen its buying position with suppliers.
• BGC achieved a significant reduction in effort to track and count stock within weeks of rolling out Fourth’s Inventory Management solution.
• Fourth Analytics has become an integral tool for the BGC management team, providing daily insights to inform tactical and strategic commercial decisions.

Results Achieved

Fourth’s Workforce and Inventory solutions have enabled British Garden Centres to achieve:

• 46% increase in sales per labour hour since 2022, driven by sales growth and efficient scheduling.
• Reduction in labour costs, as a percentage of total spend, from 47% in 2022 to 36% in 2024. Enabling BGC to mitigate the impact of a significant increase in the minimum wage in 2024.
• 30% increase in restaurant sales between 2022 and 2024, coinciding with adopting the Fourth platform and increased demand in the sector since the pandemic.
• 40% reduction in effort to track and count stock at each restaurant site.