Yorkshire Garden Centre group announces plans for Stephen H Smith’s Harden site

The directors at a Bradford headquartered Garden Centre Group have announced plans for one of the sites that it acquired earlier in the year.

YGC Group, the parent company of Tong and Tingley Garden Centres, bought the two Stephen H Smith’s garden centres in Otley and Harden, near Bingley and will start work on the Harden site in January 2023.

Phase one of the development plans for the Wilsden Road site includes new plant benches, new rooves for the gardening and restaurant areas, a refurbished giftware area and a refreshed restaurant.

Of the £200,000 investment in the first phase of Harden’s revamp, YGC Group MD, Mark Farnsworth said: “Improving the popular gardening areas is at the top of our priority list for phase one and we’re looking forward to sharing the revamped areas with customers old and new in the spring. The centre will remain open with a full range of stock whilst the improvements take place.”

YGC Group founders, Mark Farnsworth and Tom Megginson bought Tong Garden Centre in 2015 and opened the £14m Tingley Garden Centre in September 2022. Plans to develop the Stephen H. Smith’s Otley site with a £500,000 investment in the gardening, restaurant and gift areas together with a new food hall were announced last month.