Garden centre customers were still getting out in their gardens
last month (October, 2014) according to our Barometer of Trade (BoT) results.
The results showed hard landscaping sales were 25.84% up,
furniture and barbeques 18.75% up and outdoor plants 14.5% up as compared to
October, 2013.
The cooler weather certainly hasn’t put gardeners off from getting
out into their gardens.
We know that October is a great month to plant all sorts of things
such as spring flowering bulbs, shrubs, evergreens and fruit trees. With many
garden centres getting behind campaigns like the HTA’s ‘Plan it, Plant it this
Autumn’ it seems to have helped make people aware of the opportunities to be
had. This has almost certainly helped contribute to the strong outdoor plant
figures seen by many of our members.
Hard landscaping was the best performing category for a second
month running with people taking the opportunity to make changes to their
outdoor spaces before it gets colder.
Other good performers during October were garden sundries up
11.96%, houseplants 7.16% up, Christmas 6.07% up and catering 4.67% up.
Justin Williams, Director at Fron Goch Garden Centre in
Caernarfon, said: “We had an exceptional October, with good sales in all
departments. Christmas was up 44% on last October and I think it’s all down to
getting the ‘details’ right. Fine tuning and learning from a mini Christmas
study tour we did last year and opening our Christmas display at the right
time, getting merchandising and displays right as well as the marketing.
“Catering was 11.6% up last month, which I think was down to us
consistently delivering high standards of food and service, combined with
developing three keys areas: Breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea; filling those
covers all day long if possible.”
Meanwhile, The Gardens Group, which has centres in Sherborne and
Poundbury in Dorset and in Yeovil, Somerset, has seen a strong month for core
gardening products.
Mike Burks, Managing
Director of The Gardens Group, said: “Despite the wet, October was a strong
month for sales of core gardening especially winter bedding, bulbs, herbaceous,
shrubs and trees. Fruit also did well. The half-term holiday saw a good boost
to trade and this footfall really gave Christmas a good launch. Autumn as a
whole has been very positive across the board including restaurant sales.”
In Northern Ireland Creative
Gardens Limited, which has centres in Donaghadee, Bushmills has seen mild
weather lead to a rise in sales.
Philip Gass, Finance &
Marketing Director at Creative Gardens Limited, said: “In October our like for
like sales comparing 2013 with 2014 were up 4.8% at our Donaghadee store and
6.6% at our Bushmills store. The main growth at both centres came from the same
areas including strong, early Christmas sales, outdoor plants up by 13%, fruit
and veg and houseplants sales up by 51% and 67% and some good late barbecue
sales.
“The biggest financial
increase came from good café and food sales, which were up by 10.8%. Generally
the weather has been kind to us in Northern Ireland, reasonably mild and not
too much rain, which always works in our favour.”
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