Privately owned garden centre chain Dobbies has seen sales soar by 44% thanks to strong Christmas trading.
Like-for-like growth rose by 6% in the nine weeks to December 29. But the main boost for the chain has been the integration of the 37 centres it bought from Wyevale last year, more than doubling the size of the business to 69 sites.
Artificial trees were the big seller this year, along with decorations and toys.
Dobbies was bought in 2016 by a private investment consortium led by Midlothian Partners and Hattington Capital. They bought it from Tesco, for £217m in cash, who in turn won control of the group after a lengthy battle with Sir Tom Hunter.
