Sussex garden centres of the future put technology at the heart of success

Tates of Sussex has created a new team to work on several areas of innovation including artificial intelligence, e-commerce and App-based services. The customer App has been specially created, by leading developers, to meet the business’s unique vision and requirements for a modern-day experience.

“It’s vital that we work to future-proof our business and using technology in the most effective way is key to giving customers the very best garden centre experience," says Ben Tate who heads up the IT development work.

The family company began at Paradise Park in Newhaven 35 years ago and now has four sites across the county at South Downs Nurseries in Hassocks, Mayberry Garden Centre at Portslade and the most recent acquisition, Old Barn Nurseries at Dial Post near Horsham.

During the Covid pandemic, with garden centres forced to close, the company began to develop an online presence and now e-commerce is a growing part of the business.

“We have a dedicated e-commerce team now, operating a fleet of nine vans delivering across the county six-days-a-week," says Ben. “And work is underway not only to expand our range by adding products every day, but to deliver nationwide.”

Among the new items sold online are British-grown plants available direct from Tates’ Sussex-based nurseries in Hassocks and Dial Post which offer a sustainable source, reducing ‘plant miles’ over competitor products.

Also with ethics to the fore, Tates are introducing paperless ordering systems across all its coffee shops, both to boost efficiency and help protect the environment.

This expansion has all been possible thanks to an infrastructure investment of over £1.5million which has resulted in new warehousing and updated IT equipment with new software. A key innovation is new technology to synch branch stock to availability on the website so that customers are not disappointed when clicking on a product.

“The technology is brand new to us," says Ben. “Such as the delivery module which relies on automatic van-load scheduling and routing to achieve maximum efficiency. Then there’s our bespoke automated stock management system which was created for us and arranges transfers between our four sites and warehouses to fulfil customer orders.”

Today’s garden centres are very different from those of just a few decades ago when Tates opened their first store in Sussex. The business is certain that changes and improvements will continue into the future with even more reliance on new technology and AI.