[glasgow guy]

yeah it is now closed - it closed on august the 26th - they gave us all 3 minutes to gather our stuff and sacked us all (240 workers) on the spot, tesco bought it the next day for £6m.
the reason that we were all sacked was that it was not in the deal for tesco to buy the site - the deal was we buy the site on its own - no staff included so by 2pm on the 26th of august we were all out of a job - as I said we were given 3 minutes notice - all very underhand (but legal) and nobody got any redundancy money cos you have to be with a company for 2 years before you qualify - that place had only been open for 16 months - they knew what they were doing and it was all worked out very well if you look at it from a business sense - but from normal working persons sense it was utter crap - alot of tears that afternoon - not very nice at all, there were a few people from the one household that worked there thus wiping out entire income, wasnt nice seeing good friends that upset, wouldnt wish it on anyone.
It opens as a tesco next year - I know that quite a few of the garden centre staff have got jobs in that tesco when it opens next year - tesco gave all the staff members interviews before they officially advertise next year for workers - which was a nice gesture.
I am still owed over £1600 in wages from them as probably are majority of the staff from that place - it officialy wound up as a company on November 1st 2004 and its only now we can claim back monies owed - when we get it is another story though but we shall get it - money in the bank so to speak.
You live and learn !!