A Crowland garden centre is to close at the end of next month after a buyer could not be found for the business.
The Wyevale centre has struggled with footfall since the A16 bypass was opened, and is one of a number of centres being off-loaded by its parent company.
Up to 19 members of staff face the possibility of redundancy as a result of the news.
So far almost 50 branches of the branded garden centre have been sold, several to other major operators in the industry including Dobbies.
But the site at Crowland has not attracted a buyer and is likely to close on April 28.
A company spokesman said: “We have been considering the future of the centre for some time due to the impact on footfall and sales since the opening the A16 Bypass.
“Despite our best efforts we are now having to take the decision to close the centre. We will seek to redeploy as many of our talented and experienced colleagues as possible within other Garden Centres in order to minimise any compulsory redundancies.”
Christie and Co, in Nottingham, is the agent for Wyevale and will continue to accept approaches from
potential buyers.
The Postland Road premises includes a popular soft play area for children, a cafe and pet shop.
Customers will have to travel to Louth, Rothley, Leicestershire or Podington, Northamptonshire – all more than 40 miles away from Crowland – to find another Wyevale Garden Centre.
The company’s previous owner, Terra Firma, put the company up for sale in May last year when it had 145 garden centres around the country. An attempt to sell the entire company floundered and it instructed Christie to sell off the centres piece-by-piece.
Terra Firma bought the company in 2012 for £276m and attempted to buy Dobbies in 2016 but lost a bidding war.
