ALMOST 60 jobs have been kept safe with the sale of a Bolton garden centre.

Barton Grange Garden Centre, in Wigan Road, Deane, has been bought by Middlesex-based Garden Centre Group, which owns 129 other garden centres across the UK.

More than 90 per cent of the group’s plant stock is British-grown and much of this is grown in its own nurseries.

The group employs more than 5,000 staff and runs its own gardening club, with more than two million members.

Bolton Garden Centre, as it is now known, has been bought from previous owners the Preston-based Barton Grange Group.

The Bolton centre’s sale is the first significant addition to The Garden Centre Group’s network since last year, when it came under the ownership of Terra Firma, one of Europe’s leading private equity firms.

Guy Topping, director of the Barton Grange Group, said: “I have been personally involved with the Bolton development from the very beginning, even helping to build the garden centre.

“I would like to thank all the staff at Bolton who have contributed to its success during our years there.

“The business is now well-placed to build on that success.”

Kevin Bradshaw, chief executive of The Garden Centre Group, said he was pleased to be integrating the property and team into the group.

He said: “Our garden centres have a reputation for outstanding plant quality and we look forward to expanding the range and quality of plants at Bolton as well as offering membership of The Gardening Club to new customers.

“This acquisition further strengthens our position as the largest plant-and-garden-focused retailer in the UK.”

The group’s brands including Blooms Garden Centres, Country Gardens and Wyevale Garden Centres.

Last year plans for a £3 million redevelopment of the Wigan Road site under the previous ownership of Barton Grange were put on hold.

The centre, which first opened in 1990, had been earmarked for a new farm shop, butcher’s shop, restaurant and bakery, which had planning permission and could have created more than 30 new jobs.

The number of staff could have risen to 90 under the redevelopment.