Brookside Garden Centre
CLIENT:
Brookside Garden Centre
PROJECT LOCATION:
South East
PROJECT VALUE:
N/A
ARCHITECT:
N/A
PROJECT MANAGER:
N/A
CONTRACTOR
N/A
Brookside Garden Centre is a second-generation family business established in 1968. Wanting to replace and expand its existing coffee shop, the client turned to Vision Commercial Kitchens to help transform the facility into a destination venue.
Advising on the best solution
The client’s initial plan was to move the existing coffee shop from one side of the garden centre to the other. Vision advised against this, highlighting that the proposal would not meet the long-term objectives. Instead, we recommended a full relocation into a greenhouse at the rear of the site, giving the project the space it needed and allowing customer flows to be properly considered.
A complete turnkey process
The greenhouse presented challenges, with stone floors, a steel roof, and limited height. Despite this, Vision delivered the entire project from concept to completion within 10 weeks. The turnkey package included the kitchen, counters, finishes, flooring, and stud walls. Structured steels were painted, bespoke counters were fitted, and seating plans were created to maximise capacity.
Expanding capacity and customer appeal
The final coffee shop now seats 86 customers, more than doubling capacity. Since completion, Brookside has reported both increased regular custom and new visitors, with the new coffee shop proving extremely popular. The project has future-proofed the business and created a modern café environment that enhances the overall garden centre offer.
Testimonial
"The transformation Vision have made to our coffee shop is phenomenal. We had followed Vision in the HTA magazine for some time and, knowing that our existing coffee shop was dated and had huge potential if it was to be expanded, we contacted them.
Their knowledge of the garden centre industry and expertise in developing garden centre coffee shops into destination venues, sold Vision for us. It was crucial that the project was delivered by the beginning of November, in time for our busy period in the Spring. From starting in September, the project was complete just 12 weeks later.
We always had regular customers at Brookside, but we are now seeing new faces and, having doubled the coffee shop in size, it's proving very popular!"
– Janine Shead, Brookside Garden Centre
