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Skipton Business Finance Backs Sheffield Fine Fragrance Distributor


Skipton Business Finance has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the UK’s growing independent business sector by providing a six-figure invoice finance facility to Sheffield based distributors of luxury and niche fragrances, SG Brands.


Founded by Samuel Gearing in 2019, the business is known for supplying fine and independent fragrance labels to prestigious retailers such as Liberty and Fortnum & Mason. The invoice factoring facility will support the businesses growth plans by enabling it to purchase stock from brand holders, strengthen supplier partnerships and expand distribution across a broader retail network.


It will also allow the business to invest in new opportunities with heritage names such Portuguese beauty brand, Benamôr and French fragrance house, Bienaimé, helping to confidently respond to rising customer demand.


Samuel Gearing, director at SG Brands, said:

“Securing the funding from Skipton Business Finance is a pivotal moment for SG Brands. It gives us the capacity to scale our stockholding and develop relationships with our brand partners.”

“We chose to work with Skipton not just because of their flexible funding model, but because they took the time to understand our business and what makes it special. Their support means we can now pursue our growth plans with greater certainty and ambition.”


Skipton Business Finance provides invoice factoring and invoice discounting solutions tailored for SMEs across a range of sectors.


Jim Furey, regional sales director for the North West and Midlands, said:

“We’re delighted to support SG Brands at the start of this exciting growth chapter. Samuel and his team have built a distinctive and highly respected business in the fine fragrance sector, and our funding will enable them to respond to increasing demand while safeguarding the operational ability of the company.”

“At Skipton, we work with an incredibly diverse client base, from traditional industries to innovative niche sectors, and SG Brands is a great example of that range. We’re proud to be backing them through this period of growth and looking forward to being on that journey with them.”

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  • Writer: Paul Andrews
    Paul Andrews
  • Nov 17, 2023
  • 3 min read

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is delighted to announce that Hidden Valley Gardens, an intimate three-acre cottage style garden in Treesmill, Cornwall, has been voted overall winner in the RHS Partner Garden of the Year Competition 2023.


Owners Tricia and Peter Howard have spent 24 years transforming an overgrown ‘pick your own’ into an idyllic and peaceful garden, encapsulating the ‘Feel Good’ theme of the competition. Visitors describe it as “a warm and welcoming garden” and as having “an imaginative design, incorporating flowers and vegetables, with insect and bird life taken into consideration.”


The winners said: “We were quite emotional when we had the telephone call to say we won the overall 2023 Partner Garden of the Year. It is a great privilege and honour and lovely to think our visitors have loved the garden as much as we do.”


Hidden Valley Gardens was selected from six regional finalists after visitors chose their favourite gardens in each of six regions. The regional winners were:

  • Scotland: Attadale Gardens

  • North of England and Northern Ireland: Holehird Gardens

  • Midlands and East Anglia: Wyken Hall

  • South East and Channel Islands: Denmans Garden

  • South West and Wales: Hidden Valley Gardens

  • Overseas: Brahman Hills Garden

Attadale Gardens in Scotland’s Highlands offers meandering paths through water gardens and woodland, with sculptures, a herb garden, sunken garden and Japanese garden, all against the wild backdrop of the mountains and the sea loch.


Overlooking Lake Windermere, Holehird Gardens comprises a walled garden with herbaceous borders and island beds, spring bulbs, autumn colours, collections of rhododendrons, hydrangeas, alpines and six National Plant Collections.


Nine miles north east of Bury St Edmunds, Wyken Hall is home to a series of old-style gardens to complement the Elizabethan house. These include a knot garden, herb garden, traditional English kitchen garden, wildflower meadows, nuttery and a copper beech maze.


Denmans Garden is a tranquil contemporary garden on the southern slope of the South Downs. Converted by plantswoman Joyce Robinson from a post-war market garden to an ornamental garden it features extensive gravel gardens dating to 1970. From 1980 this Grade II garden was taken over and stylized by world-renowned landscape designer John Brookes MBE who lived at Denmans until 2018. Denmans is horticulturally diverse, and comprises a diverse series of spaces connected by curving paths of gravel and mown lawn through rough grass.


A new Partner Garden for 2023, South Africa’s Brahman Hills Gardens boasts a formal layout with repeating geometric motifs in circles and rectangles of hard landscaping softened and beautifully contrasted by abundant flowers and plants. Interspersed are oases of water – fountains, ponds, formal pools and the lake beside the Lake House.


Helen Feary, RHS Partner Gardens Manager, said: “In this third year of the RHS Partner Garden of the Year competition, visitors have once again touched us by voting in their thousands for their favourite gardens. Their heartfelt comments, describing gardens as ‘magical’ or even ‘balm to the soul’ show just how much good a visit to a garden can do for us.”


Details of the 2024 RHS Partner Garden of the Year competition, and how to vote, will be revealed next spring. There are currently 221 gardens in the RHS Partner Gardens scheme, which allows RHS Members to visit non-RHS gardens free at selected times of the year. They comprise some of the most famous gardens in the world as well as privately-owned hidden gems, and beyond the UK can be found in 9 countries across the globe, including Barbados, France, Japan, Singapore, and South Africa.


To find out more about RHS Partner Gardens, visit their website here

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