Blooms of Bressingham's larger format reaps rewards

Garden centre Blooms of Bressingham opens a 43,000 sq ft (4,000 sq m) greenfield site in Rugby today, two weeks later than anticipated. However, the retailer has reported that its new centre in Gloucester has traded substantially ahead of expectations since its opening on March 1.

The two sites are the vanguard of the retailer's policy of developing large-format trading spaces and represent a 60 per cent increase in its portfolio.

Analyst Seymour Pierce approved of the larger-format strategy and said the policy could be instrumental in the retailer beating forecasts for the financial year to the end of January 2006. The analyst forecast that Blooms' pre tax profits will reach£500,000 for this financial year.