Robin Mercer has spoken to Business First about why celebrating their 80th anniversary did not go according to plan for garden lifestyle business, Hillmount.
In a year when the Mercer family should have been celebrating the 80th anniversary of Hill Mercer opening the doors of Hillmount, the family has spent 2020 fighting for the survival of the multi award winning family business.
Hill established the business in 1940 growing much needed vegetables for the local markets and during the Second World War he cheered up the people of Belfast by placing plants and flowers along Royal Avenue to brighten the city centre.
As a young boy, Robin remembers listening to his grandfather telling stories of trying to build the nursery centre during the toughest of trading times and how he and Robin’s dad Trevor worked hard during the war and in post war Belfast to keep the business alive, while Trevor’s brother John raised awareness of the garden centre with his appearances as resident gardening expert on UTV.
Robin grew up in the business and the Mercer family is still very much at the heart of it today. Robin’s wife Edith joined Hillmount to manage the café when they first got married and the youngest of their three sons, Alan, manages their three garden centres with Robin, who was named Business Person of the Year at this year’s Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council Business Awards.
In the past decade, the family has extended its flagship garden lifestyle centre, with its stunning views across the Castlereagh Hills, from its original 2,400sq ft to 50,000sq ft. The ambitious extension includes a 220 seater restaurant and the addition of Ireland’s only garden centre BBQ Academy. The family also invested more than £2m in the business by opening two additional garden centres, in Ards and Bangor, increased the full time, part time and casual staff to over 100 and celebrated the garden centre’s 75th anniversary with an interactive exhibition and commemorative book.
Robin said: “If someone had told me at the start of 2020 that we would have to diversify the business beyond recognition to survive, I would not have believed them. We were looking forward to celebrating our 80th anniversary and all we have achieved with the local community but instead we had to abandon our plans.
“When I think back to the dark days and uncertainty about remaining open or being forced to close in early March and the worry of whether our business might actually close for good, it’s almost surreal. While I know that the health and safety of the population is paramount, I don’t want to think about the economic and mental health impact that another lockdown might bring and that’s why I think people really need to be sensible for the sake of themselves and for the community in general.
“Like the rest of the business community we have spent most of this year learning some harsh business lessons and working hard to keep people in jobs. We have always taken pride in being a caring employer and the idea of jobs being in jeopardy was not something we thought we would ever have had to consider.
“For some of the 2,000 customers that visit everyday, Hillmount is a real haven. At the beginning of lockdown it broke my heart as I thought of those who love to spend an hour lifting their spirits and escaping reality while wandering around the plant area or where they could enjoy a catch up with friends and family over coffee being denied the opportunity of going out.
“When we reopened, some customers said a visit to Hillmount was the first place they had been in four or five months as they had been afraid to venture out.”
Alan embraced e-commerce when lockdown began and crucially transformed Hillmount’s online presence to offer an array of plants, flowers, garden furniture, BBQs and gardening equipment. Thousands of customers were placing orders directly on the website while others chose to purchase items via email or private messages to Hillmount on Facebook each day. Sales increased by 66% year on year for the first three weeks in April with sales of seeds and bedding plants doubling and, thanks to the beautiful weather, 40% more barbecues were sold.
Robin added: “We have had so many customers telling us that being able to order plants online from us during lockdown was a Godsend for them and that being able to get out into their gardens during the exceptional spring weather saved their mental health at what some called their lowest point.”
Although fearful for the economic impact and what lies ahead for Hillmount, as aside of the impact the pandemic has had on their business, the Mercer family now also has to consider the implications surrounding Brexit, they have now turned their attention to ensuring that families enjoy a safe and memorable trip to Santa’s Grotto. In order to keep everyone safe they have had to reduce the number of people permitted to visit Santa each day and visitors will only be able to book in advance online.
“We want to make the tradition of visiting our Santa’s Grotto as enjoyable and accessible as is has been for the past 20 years while giving careful consideration to the need for keeping numbers in the grotto at any time to a minimum, maintaining social distancing and ensuring that safety is paramount for visiting families”, says Robin. He expects the slots to sell out so he would encourage people to book sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment as Hillmount adheres to restrictions around COVID-19.
In recent years Hillmount has raised more than £200,000 for local charities and was the first garden centre to be awarded Tourism NI’s four star quality status. The family have received many accolades in the past 10 years including ‘Best Family Business’. Alan Mercer writes a weekly gardening advice column in Sunday Life and BBC Radio Ulster’s Gardeners Corner frequently broadcasts their roadshow from the store.
So what of the postponed 80th celebrations? Robin says: “Last year we had a two day old baby visiting Santa on Christmas Eve. If we can stay open until Christmas to enable families to make memories for the future with a visit to Santa that will be celebration enough for me.”
If you would like to view some of the plants, BBQs and Christmas decorations Hillmount has to offer online, visit www.hillmount.co.uk and to book a visit to Santa’s Grotto, visit https://hillmount.co.uk/santas-grotto/
