WYEVALE'S in it for the long run - that's the message for country people from the Hereford-based garden centre chain's boss in charge of the purse strings.

Tony Jones has been appointed interim finance director after a somewhat turbulent time at the company, the country's largest garden centre group with more than 100 stores around the country. In the summer it changed hands to become a private, unlisted company - a watershed as far as he's concerned.

The earlier part of the year had already seen the depature of about 50 staff as the company was restructured in advance of the takeover by a consortium led by retail investors West Coast Capital, who then took stock of the nationwide operation.

However, Mr Jones, aged 47 and based at Kings Acre Road in offices behind the garden centre, says all the changes have been for the good and will help it achieve its vision of becoming a nationwide chain.

"Wyevale Garden Centres has gone from a position of being one which was under siege from potential bidders to one acquired by an investment consortium which intends to invest and develop the business," he said.

"Prior to that point, it was publicly quoted with 114 stores and a static turnover of around £200m, which has suffered through lack of investment in recent years.'' He added: "We want the people of Hereford to know we are here for the long term.

"The change of ownership marks a watershed for the business. Our new vision is to become a UK-wide chain of large garden-centred departmental stores.

"We intend to add more stores to our current portfolio, which is largely southern-biased, through organic growth and acquisitions and to be better represented in the Midlands and north."

The support team at Hereford comprises the finance and IT teams while buyers and the commercial teams will be based in Slough. "The current office building in Hereford is now too big and we are consolidating our operations in the newer part of the building," said Mr Jones. Chairman Jim Hodkinson, formerly of B&Q, and chief executive Barry Stevenson, a past director of M&S and Woolworths, were asked by the new investors to run the business.

Chartered accountant Mr Jones is on board to help the business in its early growth phase and was operations director of Camelot.

He is married with two teenage sons and he and his wife, Olwen, live in Leicestershire. For the way ahead, he wants to create a more all-rounded shopping experience for customers, as an example, based on gardening projects undertaken at different times of the year.

"We need to create a compelling reason for people to visit Wyevale's out-of town-stores," he explained.

"Many of our customers tend to be slightly older and happy to drive out to somewhere to spend their dwell time'.

"Our unique selling points include the horticultural expertise of our staff and the quality of the restaurants,"

He added: "We want to show the world that we are genuinely leading the market.

"Wyevale has been market leader but we cannot say we have led the market up until now.

"As the business grows, it is likely we will need to hire more staff in the garden centres.

"We want the people of Hereford to know we are excited about the business and want more good people to join us in the future."

Throughout the country, Wyevale employs around 4,000 people, with 67 at the Hereford store, 65 at the Hereford office and 48 at Slough once the buying and commercial teams have moved in a few weeks time.

Around 70% of the people who work in the plants sales departments are horticulturally trained, or keen gardeners, with decades of experience between them.

Each year more than 28,000 varieties of trees, shrubs, bedding plants, and house plants are chosen by the horticultural team who work closely with the UK's top growers and seed suppliers, selecting the best range for the centres.