Our Barometer of Trade (BoT) report for January is in
and it looks like catering sales kick started the year at 16.48% up with Food
Hall/Farm Shop sales close behind at 16.04% up. Clothing was also a good seller
at 16.09% up.
Our member garden centres were full of customers
enjoying their food whether in their food halls and farm shops, as well as
restaurants throughout January, which is good to see. As well as stopping off
to buy produce and for a bite to eat, shoppers also picked up plenty of
houseplants as this was best performing traditional category during the month
with sales up 11.09%.
January was a very wet month so it is not surprising
to see other more traditional categories not performing as well as hoped.
Outdoor plant sales were at -9.19%, seeds and bulbs were
-8.99% and garden sundries at -2.68%.
Furniture and barbecue sales were up 8.14% compared to
the same month last year.
Gifts and Christmas items continued to perform well
during the month as people took advantage of the January sales in order to
stock up for next year or to simply just grab something at a bargain price.
Gift sales were up 4.55% and Christmas sales were up 9.75%.
Sales in pets and aquatics departments were -2.87% and
hard landscaping sales were at
-5.5%.
For the month of January the overall garden centre
performance and Year to Date change was 5.79%.
Julian Winfield, who is the Chief Executive of Haskins
Garden Centre and also our new Chairman, said: “Not that many years ago garden
centres were quiet after Christmas, but now thanks to our restaurants our
customers keep coming in even when the weather is not good. This helps keep our
customers interested in what we have to offer.
“All the non-gardening departments have done
reasonably well, some discounted old ranges but also in new product such as
garden furniture. Those garden centres that quickly cleared up Christmas in
early January look ready for spring sales.”
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