Rebecca Hubbard
Posted: Thursday, August 19, 2010 10:27 am

Garden Centre Online has been acquired by mail order group Flying Brands for £0.13m.

The site, www.gardencentreonline.co.uk, sells garden and hardware products, including DIY, barbecues, garden furniture, pet care, grow your own and outdoor buildings. 

Flying Brands, whose other companies include Flying Flowers and mail order gardening business Gardening Direct, is anticipated to pay £0.13m for the internet business. 

Chief executive Steven Cook said of the deal: "The acquisition of Garden Centre Online is another example of our strategy of acquiring businesses in areas that are complementary to our existing product range and that enable us to leverage our growing customer base. It will increase further our online sales and we look forward to being able to offer our existing customers a wide range of great value-for-money hardware products." 

Flying Brands trades in three divisions - garden, entertainment and gifts. Garden Bird Supplies was acquired by the firm in 2005, which now trades alongside Gardening Direct. Silverminds Direct was acquired in the same year, which formed the Listen2 brand after merging with Listen2Books, selling DVDs, CDs and audio books.