SEVENTY jobs will be created when an award-winning garden centre near Droitwich blossoms and grows with a £5m expansion.

Work will start next week to add an extra 62,000 sq ft of new covered retail space to Webbs of Wychbold, trebling the existing area and making it one of the largest independent garden centres in the UK.

The expansion will allow Webbs to increase facilities for customers such as extending the size of the restaurant, improving the till area and trading space for departments as well as the potential to produce new product ranges.

The centre is already the biggest in the Midlands and a major local employer with around 300 staff.

At the start of the year Webbs was officially named the top plant seller in Britain by judges from The Garden Centre Association.

Managing Director Ed Webb said: "These are very exciting new developments for the company.

"We already have more than a million visitors a year and the new area will mean we can offer our customers an even wider choice of products in inspirational and comfortable surroundings.

"As always, we will continue to put high standards of customer service and expertise at the core of everything we do.

"We passionately believe that continued investment in the Garden Centre at Wychbold will enable us to reward our loyal customers with a truly unique shopping experience and introduce a whole new generation of customers to Webbs for years to come."

Wychavon district councillor Judy Pearce welcomed the news.

She said: "I fully welcome the new development and the additional local employment that it will bring.

"I look forward to seeing the new and enhanced building open in 2006."

Webbs is a family business success story going back to the middle of the 19th Century when Edward Webb was a successful agricultural seeds merchant.

Webbs' seeds became a household name and the family was appointed seeds men to every monarch from Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II.

Ed Webb has recently taken over from his father Richard as company managing director. Ed is the great, great, great grandson of the founder. Richard remains as company chairman.

The new areas are expected to open mid-summer next year.