Fusion Holidays is set to open a new shop in Findon Vale Garden Centre in West Sussex in January.
It will be the agency’s third site and builds on a partnership with the Your Garden Centre Group.
Fusion Holidays was founded in 2013 and traded online as Fusion Cruises selling cruise holidays, before opening its first shop in Rustington, West Sussex, in 2017 and diversifying into land-based holidays.
Harry Lightfoot, Fusion Holidays director, told Travel Weekly: “We identified that there was a gap for a good, all-round independent travel agency in 2016 and we were in the right place at the right time for our first retail store.
“We quickly changed our model from just being a cruise specialist to all holidays and adapted and built a strong business on being a good, honest, independent agent that specialises in tailor-made holidays.”
Lightfoot said “pure chance” struck for the second shop as his wife took him for a coffee at Stansted Park Garden Centre in West Sussex (pictured) where he saw an empty premises, which had previously housed a hot tub business.
He said: “I was sitting there while she was shopping, and I saw the footfall was quite impressive, and I contacted the owners at the garden centre and that was how the second store was born.”
The second shop opened in June 2023 and in its first 18 months is doing double the business of the first store, Lightfoot revealed.
The garden centre owners then approached Fusion Holidays about setting up in a new site they had acquired, which would undergo a £2.5 million refurbishment.
“We decided it would be worth taking a shot at it,” Lightfood said. “Even though it is about eight miles from our first store and a completely different catchment, it’s in a very affluent area and mimics all the same properties as our first garden centre store.”
The Findon Vale Garden Centre store will be identical to the agency’s other garden centre shop at Stansted Park Garden Centre.
Lightfoot added: “For the third store, we would hope that it would be in line with the other garden centre store [in sales] and if it did that, we would be quite happy.”
He noted that safari and “wish list type holidays” do particularly well at the current garden centre site.
The new shop fit will start in early January with a view to opening towards the middle or end of January.
The plan is for there to be two staff at the new shop, and Lightfoot will go between the two garden centre stores.
Lightfoot will promote the new shop through organising The Hampshire and Sussex Cruise and Travel Show, which will bring together 31 suppliers from cruise lines, escorted tour companies, hoteliers, and tourist boards, and is free for the public to attend.
He added he “would never say never” to more garden centre locations in future if there was a demand for it and the other stores were “performing well”, but stressed it was “extremely important we don’t stretch ourselves beyond our means”.