Yorkshire garden centre group creates new roles to support growth

A Bradford headquartered garden centre group has created three new roles to support growth at its six sites.

Yorkshire Garden Centres has sites at Tong, Tingley, Otley and Bingley and has recently acquired Dean’s of York and Scarborough. The new roles of Group People and Culture Manager, Group Catering Operations Manager and Giftware and Christmas Team Lead will work across all sites.

Steph Harrison joined Yorkshire Garden Centres (YGC) in 2022 and has been promoted to the Group People and Culture Manager position. Lisa Passant joined YGC in 2022 and has been promoted to Giftware and Christmas Team Lead. Thomas Waller joined YGC from British Garden Centres earlier this year.

An experienced catering operations specialist, Mr. Waller is responsible for driving the growing business forward in catering operations, standards and compliance. Mrs. Harrison’s role includes overseeing the running of the People and Culture team and working with the team’s Head to develop and implement the People and Culture strategy and Ms. Passant’s responsibilities include managing the gift area, her team and stock rotation.

Mark Farnsworth, Yorkshire Garden Centres’ MD, said: “Steph and Lisa have worked hard to earn their promotions and Thomas has joined the business at a very exciting time. All three appointments will help to prepare us for future growth.

“At Yorkshire Garden Centres, we pride ourselves on investing in our team to help us, and them, grow. Lisa has been through our in-house leadership development programme, Great By Nature, which aims to grow great leaders who inspire others to be the best that they can be, and the business funded Steph’s CIPD Level 5 People Management qualification.”

The YGC group comprises Tong, Tingley, Otley and Bingley Garden Centres plus Dean’s York and Dean’s Scarborough. Otley and Bingley were known as Stephen H Smith’s before they were acquired by YGC in 2022.