Bents Garden and Home hub gets £2m loan to help it through lockdown

Bents Garden and Home secured the lifeline from Barclays via the CBILS (Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme).

The finance will ensure that the business can get through a difficult time for the industry – which is seasonal and relies on spring and summer sales for a large proportion of its annual revenue.

Bent, based near Leigh, is a family-run garden centre established in 1937.

The centre employs over 500 people and has evolved into a popular lifestyle destination.

While the food store and online trading remains open for business, all other on-site retail trading has been closed by the pandemic to comply with Government guidance. Like most garden centres, peak spring season is a critically important trading period - and the lockdown looked set to have dire consequences for the business’s income streams.

Bents’ finance director Brian Daniels said: “Gardening is naturally very seasonal so what we earn in the spring and summer gets us through to the Christmas trading period. For the first half of March, we were very busy but then everything stopped with the announcement of the lockdown”

“Whilst we have managed to maintain limited trading through our food store and online, the lockdown was going to have a huge impact on our business, so we asked Barclays for support.

“Our relationship director Giles Barton said, ‘Yes, we can lend you the money to get you through this.’ I can’t speak too highly of the expeditious way in which Barclays processed our business interruption loan application. We submitted an application and the money was in our account just a few days later.

“The loan gives us certainty on our immediate cash flow requirements and ensures that we will be here for our customers after the lockdown finishes.”

A message from the Editorial Director, Gillian Parkinson:

Thank you for reading this story on our website.

But I also have an urgent plea to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality local news on this free-to-read site and in print, please purchase a copy of our newspaper as well.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on our town centres and many of our valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you buying a copy when you pop out for your essential shop or subscribing for delivery.

Our journalists are highly trained by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards anywhere in the world. Our content is universally trusted - as all independent research proves.

As Baroness Barran said in a House of Lords debate this week on the importance of journalists: "Not only are they a trusted source of facts, but they will have a role to play in rallying communities and getting the message across about how we can keep ourselves and our families safe, and protect our NHS. Undoubtedly, they have a critical role."

But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis. In return we will continue to forensically cover the local news - not only the impact of the virus but all the positive and uplifting news happening in these dark days.

We thank all our readers and advertisers for their understanding and support - and we wish YOU all the best in the coming weeks. Keep safe, and follow the Government advice. Thank you.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: You can subscribe for delivery by contacting us at [email protected] or calling us on 0330 4033004 for details of a participating newsagent near you.