Dobbies Garden Centre, Antrim

The Project

Dobbies, the UK’s largest garden centre retailer, has officially opened its store at The Junction Retail and Leisure Park in Antrim.

The 110,000ft flagship store is Dobbies’ second venture in Northern Ireland. This is the largest store in Dobbies’ UK portfolio with outdoor and indoor plant areas, pet, gift, and toy departments, as well as a cook shop and home décor area, a food hall, a children’s soft play area and new restaurant and coffee shop.

Tobermore’s Sienna block paving in Silver was used in the flagship store to create a sleek, contemporary look. The striking aggregate finish to the paving perfectly compliments the modern exterior of the building. For the area around the new bowling green. Due to the level of expected footfall, it was important to consider hard-wearing but aesthetically pleasing paving options.

The Challenge

Modern paving was required for the retail development.

Situated in The Junction Retail development in Antrim, and with a massive £10m invested, the 110,000ft2 store is the largest in Dobbies UK portfolio. To complement the modern aesthetics of the retail store, Dobbies sought hard landscaping to amplify the fresh contemporary feel. The store is expected to attract a footfall of around one million visitors per year. With that in mind, ensuring high quality, durable paving was used throughout the project was imperative. In addition to aesthetic and performance desires for the project and with sustainability in mind, Dobbies decided they wanted to source products locally to reduce their carbon footprint.

The Solution

Tobermore’s Sienna block paving in silver created a sleek, contemporary look.

With a wide array of products all locally sourced, Tobermore was the chosen manufacturer to supply Dobbies with a hard landscaping solution which surpassed both aesthetic and performance expectations. Sienna block paving in Silver was used for the 3960m2 area in the retail store. Both areas, interior and exterior were paved with the striking aggregate finished product. Gerard Boyle, Senior Architect at Gray Design said “We chose Tobermore Sienna block paving due to it being produced locally, thus reducing its carbon footprint. We also wanted to support the local economy and Tobermore had a great selection of colours and products to choose from.”