Everton Nurseries to keep growing and serving the local community under new ownership
Specialist business property adviser Christie & Co has announced the sale of Everton Nurseries near Lymington.
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Image: The incoming and outgoing owners of Everton Nurseries. Credit: Everton Nurseries.
Everton Nurseries on the edge of the New Forest is a much-loved garden centre and nursery. In the Collyer family for over 100 years, Everton Nurseries has been sold by Christie & Co and is now under new family ownership which will allow the business to continue its passion of serving local gardeners.
Everton becomes the fifth garden centre in the Your Local Garden Centre group owned by local garden centre owner, Paul Richards. Richards was attracted to the business, valuing its heritage and the quality of the plants it grows as well as the leisure retail and catering on site.
The change of ownership facilitates the retirement of the third generation of the Collyer family. Richards said, “It has been a pleasure dealing with the Collyer family and our values closely align.”
Helpful and knowledgeable staff are a great strength of the business and all jobs are safeguarded. “We have no plans for redundancies. Quite the opposite, we will want more staff as we act on our plans to develop the business and make sure it has many more successful years as a family-owned and horticultural business,” says Richards. Two members of the fourth generation of the Collyer family will stay on in management positions.
The retiring Directors commented, “It was a difficult decision, but it was important to us that all staff will be retained. We are confident that the business is in safe hands and will continue to thrive and prosper. We wanted the business to carry on in a similar format and remain one business incorporating the wholesale nursery side and the garden centre. We are very grateful to all our loyal and longstanding staff and customers, and we are confident that the decision has helped to secure the future of the business.”
The heart of the business is the nursery that grows plants sold in the garden centre and to wholesale customers. Paul Richards started his career as a nurseryman and owned the Golden Acres Nursery at West Parley. Paul’s daughter Charlotte is following in her father’s footsteps and now runs Plants For Trade as a cash and carry nursery at West Parley. The nursery at Everton will be run by Charlotte as a sister business to Plant For Trade.
Camillias, the on-site coffee shop restaurant will continue with its own bakery for cakes and treats, and it will continue to be the popular meeting place it has become.
Tom Glanvill, Head of Leisure Brokerage at Christie & Co, commented, “This is the fifth garden centre that we have sold in 2026 and demonstrates continued strong demand for garden centres. Everton Nurseries is a fantastic business with a long history and strong focus on horticulture. This is the second garden centre that we have sold to Your Local Garden Centre group and having witnessed the investment and improvements that they have made across their growing garden centre estate in recent years, I am confident that Everton Nurseries will go from strength to strength.”
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