Leeds based online tropical plant retailer blooms with expansion into new unit and record sales

A Leeds based retailer is celebrating a record-breaking end to 2021, with the business achieving a turnover of over £190k between April and December and has expanded into new premises as it continues to grow in 2022.

Grow Tropicals specialises in exotic and rare tropical plants and indoor gardening accessories and is currently based in a 3,500 sq ft store, tropical hydroponics, and terrarium plant nursery in Leeds, which opened its doors in March 2021.

Jacob James initially launched the business during the first lockdown as a side project, before switching to work on the business full-time last spring.

Since launching, Grow Tropicals has experienced rapid growth, which has led to the business expanding into a brand-new 2,500 sq ft unit based next door to the retailer’s current home in Burley Hill Trading Estate in order to help meet demand.

The new space will allow the retailer to invest further in new machinery and greenhouses so it can increase the business’s on-site propagation and reduce reliance on imports, enabling the team to achieve its target of 70 per cent propagation for their own grown plants as a business by the end of its second year.

In addition to the new unit and turnover success, Grow Tropicals has seen growth in the sales of its peat-free houseplant substrates, including the customer-favourite, Jungle Mix, with record sales of over 5,000 units per month of these products alone.

Founder of Grow Tropicals, Jacob James, said: “Throughout this journey we have seen incredible results for the business, with over 5,000 units of our peat-free substrates being sold monthly, which has help contribute towards the six-figure turnover in our first nine months of trading full-time.

“The value of the business has jumped fivefold in this time, which has helped us secure further investment to grow.

“We have ambitious plans for 2022 and our team is excited to continue the good work we’ve become known for, and the new unit will certainly allow us to focus on further growth and increasing our sustainability to 70 per cent moving forward.”