Green fingers grow the business

A garden centre in north London has succeeded in combining the training of disadvantaged youngsters with becoming a commercial success. So how, asks Grace McCann, has it managed such a balancing act?

In the urban sprawl between Camden Town and King's Cross train depot lies an intriguing patch of green. It looks like an ordinary garden centre, but it doesn't behave like one. Camden Garden Centre started life humbly as an on-the-job training centre for troubled youngsters. It continues to train disadvantaged people, yet is also a commercial success, having scooped the top industry award, UK Garden Centre of the Year.

So efficient is the centre's balancing act between its commercial and charitable aims that new customers might have no idea while strolling among the tomato plants and azaleas that their money will be going towards good – and sometimes tragically needy – causes.

The straight-talking MP for Hampstead and Highgate, Glenda Jackson, is a fan. "I'm not that au fait with the training aspect, [but] whenever I've been there I've been impressed with the range and quality of stock. [And the people] who work there are very, very helpful, know their stuff and can advise," she says. The centre was chuffed to receive a letter of congratulations for the award from Ms Jackson, and has pinned it up by the tills.

With a turnover of less than £2m, Camden Garden Centre isn't big. But the judges of the award are keen to stress that theirs was no sympathy vote - Camden won on its strengths as a business, says one judge, Alison Lee, director of business development at the Horticultural Trades Association. Camden isn't the only garden centre doing good works, but similar projects tend to receive government funding. There are also independent garden centres which once offered charitable training but have found it easier to simply give some of their profits to good causes.

Camden runs NVQs in retail operations and customer service. It has a training manager supervising five full-time trainees, and plans to take on more soon. Trainees earn the minimum wage, and are different from staff, who are paid at market rates. Since it was set up in the early Eighties, Camden has taken on more than 150 trainees, transforming troubled people – the long-term unemployed, ex-prisoners, substance abusers, those with physical or mental-health problems – into individuals who are able to hold down jobs.

Not every trainee has gone the distance, but some of the success stories are outstanding. One young man who suffered from cystic fibrosis became the boss of his own garden centre; a woman trainee went on to become one of the centre's managers. It then sponsored her through a landscape architecture degree and she is now the boss of a company in that field.

The centre's director, Peter Hulatt, was particularly delighted by the award because he's seen the place through some tough times. In 1992 an unavoidable move to a site in a quieter location was at first a disaster. "It was the middle of a recession, and managers who had been promoted from trainee status were inexperienced commercially," says Mr Hulatt. "Training was put on hold and there were redundancies."

Camden's dream was dying, but it has since rebuilt its strength and now has a turnover three times the size of that generated at the old site. The centre had to make changes to be successful. Trainee positions became complimentary to the permanent staff. "They have to be separate, because we don't always get a good outcome with the trainees," says Camden's training manager, Mike Jackson. "Sometimes they just go awol."

Six years ago the centre started to take on trainees with a range of backgrounds and difficulties, because its original target group of young unemployed people had shrunk. St Mungo's, a London charity for the homeless, and the probation service became important contacts, referring suitable candidates for training and passing on tips. Advice from St Mungo's has helped trainees with a history of rough sleeping to break the habit of wandering off. "They told us that two years [the length of the training course] is a long time for people on the street," says Mr Jackson. "We have fast-tracked the training so that trainees have part of their qualification within months."

NVQs are practical qualifications earned in a work or work-type environment. They are made up of units, which the student earns by demonstrating proficiency at various tasks and keeping evidence of this in a folder. A customer service student's folder at Camden will include such things as diary entries about dead-heading plants and serving customers.

Camden's managers have discovered that they must be cruel to be kind. "On time-keeping, for example," says Mike Jackson. Poor timekeepers are disciplined with the threat of losing their job and some have been sacked. "There is no point in going easy on them or they won't be able to cut it in the real world," says Jackson.

Working with beautiful plants in the open air might sound easy, but it isn't, says Peter Hullatt. "The environment is nice but we also have lorries of plants rolling up each day to be priced."

Mr Jackson offers as much pastoral care as he can to the trainees – he's just helped one to win £130 compensation from the local council for dragging its heels on a benefit claim. But to make his role cost effective, he also works on extra curricular activities which have commercial benefits.

Like city workers and telephone-sales teams, Camden's workers go on team-building outings. But you won't find them playing with laser guns or having group hugs. Most events are educational trips to famous gardens such as those at Kew or Wisley.

Some trainees and staff are taking college horticulture courses, and get a chance to practise the discipline at the centre because it looks after a local housing estate's gardens. "We've just pruned their wisteria – it looks beautiful," says Mike Jackson.

A love of plants and a commitment to people aren't easy to fake, and there is plenty of both at Camden Garden Centre. "It is an example to ordinary garden centres that see training as a cost, not a benefit," says Alison Lee.