A WEST Lothian garden centre which is having to focus its efforts on home delivery at what would normally be its busiest time of year, amid the Covid-19 crisis, has secured loan funding from Bank of Scotland.
Employee-owned New Hopetoun Gardens, which has had to close its doors to the public and furlough 28 of its 36 staff amid restrictions implemented across the UK to slow the spread of Covid-19, has secured a £195,000 funding package from the bank under the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS). An additional £110,000 of CBIL funding has been earmarked for the end of the year should the lockdown continue beyond May.
April and May are usually the busiest months for the long-established garden centre. At least 10,000 people usually visit in each of these months, which see strong demand for potted plants, shrubs and pots.
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Bank of Scotland noted “restrictions placed on the general public to avoid non-essential travel and purchases” meant the garden centre business could “no longer rely on its usual income from customer visits”.
Morag Macrae, joint owner of New Hopetoun Gardens, said: “This should be our busiest time of year, but people simply aren’t allowed to visit us. To overcome this challenge, we’re focusing on home deliveries and currently send 15 orders a day to customers. When the lockdown was announced we went through a lot of scenario-planning. The deliveries do bring in a small amount of income, but we knew we’d need further support to pay our suppliers. Thanks to the funding, we’re able to keep...members of staff on board to deliver the plants and take care of the stock we still have.”
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Stuart McNaughton, at Bank of Scotland, said: “A lot of businesses that rely on customer footfall are experiencing large decreases in income. For some, however, there are alternatives. New Hopetoun Gardens is a great example of a business that is adapting.”
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