About us

Our team is connected by innovation, expertise and the desire to develop opportunities that help garden centres generate sustainable rental income year on year, and in turn help concessions find the right garden centre partners to trade with.

First Franchise has established concessions as an integral part of the UK garden centre market and as such, many of the brands have become household names and are considered by customers, to be a department of the  garden centre.

Our team have worked in garden centres, they understand the nuances, and their contacts are at the highest level in the industry.

In the 1980’s our Managing Director developed the concession model on his own garden centres and using that experience he then introduced the model into some of the garden centre groups. The idea was to mitigate the effect of the weather by partnering with brands that attracted customer when garden centres were traditionally quieter.

In 2004 First Franchise was launched at GLEE and the concession model was promoted to the wider garden centre industry. 

Stephen Cooper and Daren Templeman, both joined First Franchise from Wyevale, bringing their extensive garden centre and concession experience to the team. Stephen has been in the horticultural industry for 40 years, specialising in property, planning and acquisitions, and Daren was responsible for the concession portfolio at Wyevale from 2013, building the annual rental income to over £21m a record for the garden centre industry. The team is supported by Chelsea Watson, who’s analytical focus, ensures all the projects are kept on target, and in addition Chelsea manages the short term concession business. 

Rob Jones is our acquisition consultant having spent 35 years at Knight Frank where he was a Partner specialising in Capital Markets and Urban Regeneration. 

Rob and the First Franchise team have been directly responsible for the Blue Diamond acquisitions of Blackdown, Mere Park, Van Hages Group, Beckworth Emporium, Alnwick and Longacres acquisition of Bourne Valley. They have also assisted Dobbies Landlords transition their sites to new owners, as part of the Dobbies closure process and with the development and sale of Lavershot Barns, in Berkshire. 

First Franchise has supported and worked with every major garden centre group and all the leading independent garden centres, helping them develop concession models and introducing retail brands as concession partners, many of which have been associated with First Franchise for over 20 years.