We pride ourselves on our desire to exceed customer expectations. By bringing together a unique and talented team we deliver the ultimate garden centre experience. Our specialist buyers travel far and wide to discover trends, products and plants with one aim in mind, to engage and excite customers on their visit to Burston.
Meet the team
John Pearson – Company Chairman
Company chairman and co-owner since the Garden Centre’s conception in 1978. A very successful plants grower and businessman throughout his long career. He is, even today, extremely keen to further develop and support the business, and ensure that the principles of offering good quality and good service are met. John’s other main passion in life, apart from his family, is flying and aircraft.
Carole Goodchild – Managing Director
Managing Director since 2006, Carole has spent her whole career in sales and retail and owned a local successful retail outlet for 10 years. Her philosophy is that ‘A good business is reliant on having good staff’ and is very proud of her team. She loves most sports from the safety of an armchair, is passionate about football and is a fanatical Spurs supporter.
Steve Puddefoot – Director of Operations
Steve has worked in Horticulture for over 30 years, starting work part time in a garden centre at the age of 15. He studied at Oaklands college and after 8 years in his first job he left to study in the USA. On his return he spent two years landscaping before arriving at Burstons. In his spare time Steve enjoys spending time with his family as well as reading, travelling and gardening.
Darren Pattinson – Retail Sales Manager
A career in the garden centre industry spanning 28 years proves a great asset to Burston. With experience in every sector of gardening, she’s the perfect person to answer any question. On a daily basis, you’ll most probably see her in the middle of an exciting new display build, ensuring that all the things you love to see around the store are here for you to enjoy. Outside of the garden centre she loves nothing better than walking with friends in Italy or enjoying her own garden.
Darran Major – Plant Area Manager
Darran began his retail life at Waitrose, fast tracking through their management training programme. After a short break as a motorbike instructor he returned to retail in the Garden Centre industry. His flair for creating inspirational gardens for Burston customers to take ideas from has earned him and his team it’s own industry award. Taking his own family garden needs as a foundation he has bought ideas such as allotment gardens to the centre. Outside of work he enjoys playing in a band and being with his family.
Lucy Payne – Indoor Living Manager
With over 6 years experience sourcing interior products for Burston, Lucy has a great eye for up-and-coming interior trends, helping to bring unique and inspiring collections together for the store. Outside of work Lucy enjoys evenings eating out and going to the cinema, shopping and relaxing walks with friends and family.
Rob Eyre – Garden Care Manager
Rob used to work as one of our treasured, part-time weekend assistants many years ago while still at school. After a few years in the wilderness he has found his way back! He has been with us for 4 years full time and now runs the garden care department with a constant (well most of the time!) smile on his face.
Nick Jeavons – Outdoor Living Manager
Nick began his career as a Graphic Artist, which lasted some 14 years. For the last 15 years he’s been in retail selling indoor/outdoor furniture and accessories. In his spare time Nick volunteers for the RSPB, enjoys bird watching, drawing & painting, photography, walking, badminton and gardening.
Claire Towler – Restaurant Manager
Claire has worked in the Catering Industry for the past 20 years. She studied for her Diploma in Hospitality and Catering at The South East Essex College. She spent some years working in Hotels in the Channel Islands and Norfolk, before coming to Burston’s in 2003. Since then the Restaurant has gone from strength to strength with ‘homemade’ being the key. Claire enjoys spending time with her family, dining out and socialising.
Gareth Evans – Aquatics and Reptiles Manager
Gareth is on his second stint at the Fisheries – he loved it so much he came back! Now he is back he has bought his hobby to the business with the introduction of reptiles. Outside of helping others appreciate the beauty of fish, he is a keen fish and reptile keeper himself. When he is not looking after his animals then he is more than likely to be found on a golf course.
Burston Garden Centre Environmental Policy
At Burston Garden Centre we recognise that there are important environmental issues associated with the retailing and distribution of horticultural products. We believe that good environmental practice is an integral part of how we run our business.
In order to manage these issues effectively we are committed to: -
- Using resources efficiently and minimising their consumption by using materials that are renewable, recyclable or reusable. We are increasing our range of environmentally friendly products; our teak and Iroko is from well-managed forests and plantations, whilst our karri and pinewood is FSC certified. The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international network to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. (For more information, please see our ‘Environmental Sourcing of wood for our garden furniture’ below.)
- Minimising waste generated by our business, promoting recycling and reusing materials where applicable. We recycle batteries for customers, cardboard, paper, glass, plastic bottles, plant trays, tins, ink cartridges and toner.
- Meeting or exceeding the regulatory requirements that relate to the companies activities.
- Promoting plants and other products that have associated environmental benefits and to provide, where appropriate, information relating to these products. We buy from local suppliers where possible. We get our bedding and roses from our own on-site nursery, reducing our carbon footprint.
- Promoting awareness of environmental issues through communication with new and existing staff and providing training opportunities to support this. We encourage staff not to print emails.
- Providing biodegradable bags that are available for our customers to purchase. These are promoted at our Till Points and our Information Desk.
- Ensuring all our packaging material at our till points are recyclable.
- Recycling all food waste, paper, cardboard, plastics, glass and tins from our Restaurant.
- We have a comprehensive ‘Peat Policy’. It is our intention to promote the use of peat-free products by raising awareness of the issues and selling peat replacement products at similar prices to products containing peat. More details are available in below.
We will continually monitor and review our environmental policy in order to further improve its performance.
Environmental sourcing of wood for our Garden Furniture
Alexander Rose, who supply us with the majority of our wooden garden furniture, are committed to only sourcing their various types of wood from environmentally sustainable areas.
Teak
All Alexander Rose’s Teak wood is made using only premium grade FSC timber from responsibly managed forests in Brazil.
Mahogany
Alexander Rose use selected FSC timber from responsibly managed forests in The Congo in Central Africa.
Karri
Alexander Rose’s Karri is FSC certified from responsibly managed forests in South Africa, making it another environmentally acceptable choice.
Pine
Only carefully selected FSC timber from responsibly managed forests in Eastern Europe is used.
FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international network to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. Appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber protects the forest’s biodiversity and ecology, whilst at the same time being beneficial to local peoples and society at large. Operations are structured and managed to be profitable, but not at the expense of the forest resources, the ecosystem or affected communities.
Harbo supply us with some of our Pine furniture and their wood is also carefully sourced from FSC forests.
Peat Policy
At Burston we support and actively encourage the reduction of peat in growing media. Most of the composts we sell are reduced peat and the rest are completely peat free. Our suppliers are relentlessly researching and testing alternatives to peat, some of which have comfortably out performed their peat-based counterparts.
We are currently running a trial of West+ multipurpose compost in our nurseries for growing roses and bedding plants with very impressive results. West+ uses wood fibre as a sustainable, high performance peat replacement. All the wood is from FSC certified trees and improves moisture retention and encourages a stronger root development.
Our peat free multipurpose compost from supplier Vital Earth won the ‘Which? Best Buy’ award in 2010 for use in containers. All our Vital Earth products are made from recycled garden waste, which is sourced entirely from the UK.
