A HOME and garden centre has started the new year by opening a £700,000 staff facility.

Bents Garden and Home's new employee hub boasts offices and amenities and is part of the second phase of its £10 million development.

The previous staff offices and facilities were located in several portable cabins at the Glazebury site, which now employs more than 300 people.

Managing director Matthew Bent said: “We have been able to focus on our colleagues and work with them to create this fantastic new space.

“We have always had a long-term plan in place and our colleague facilities were always an integral part of that plan, creating a bright and modern working environment for our office colleagues and a warm and welcoming destination where everyone can spend their breaks.”

Central to the new facilities is Bents’ Bistro, a dining area with quiet zones and bar-style seating that is run by the home and garden centre's in-house chefs.

There are also new toilets, lockers and shower rooms as well as training facilities, casual meeting areas and hot desks.

Small scale meeting pods in the form of quirky internal sheds and larger meeting rooms have been named after Bents’ founders Alfred and Margaret Bent.

Garden centre consultant Ernest Wertheim, 95, has also had a meeting pod named after him having played a pivotal role in the development of Bents over the past 20 years.

Future plans include a further transformation of the centre, creating a larger contemporary retail space with a two-storey high-glazed atrium and escalators leading up to 3,800 square metres of retail, leisure and educational space.