Jardiland now part of Invivo Retail

Ten months after it was announced, the acquisition of the French garden centre chain Jardiland by the cooperative Invivo Group has now been completed. Owned hitherto by the investment company L_Gam, Jardiland with nearly 200 stores now belongs to the same agricultural cooperative as the market leader in the garden centre sector, Gamm vert (roughly 1 000 stores) and the franchise chain Delbard (around 180 outlets). The competition authorities have decreed, however, that Invivo Retail must relinquish eleven Jardiland stores within twelve months. For Guillaume Darrasse, CEO of Invivo Retail, the group will thereby become a "player on the European scale in the garden centre and pet store segment," according to his comments.