Christmas shoppers headed to our member
garden centres rather than the high street for their festive decorations and
gifts during November and December (2013) with sales in both categories up on
the same months last year.
Our Barometer of Trade (BoT) figures
revealed Christmas sales were up by 12.57% in November and 5.95% in December
compared to the previous year.
Our Chairman, Peter Burks, explained:
“Sales of gifts during November were up 8.14% compared to the previous year and
December gift sales were up 5.58% on 2012.
“It’s encouraging to see more people
preparing for Christmas by visiting garden centres in their areas instead of
high streets to pick up essentials.”
November’s sales of clothing were up by
13.37% compared to the previous year. Outdoor plants also performed well during
December with a 16.13% change.
The best performing categories overall
during 2013 were food hall/farm shop, which was up 8.05% and furniture and
BBQs, which saw an increase of 6.46% due to improved weather.
Overall sales at GCA garden centres in
2013 were up 3.3%.
Peter added: “I’d like to thank all of
our member garden centres for their hard work during 2013. The year has been a
learning curve for us all and we look forward to even more positive sales in
2014.”
Our BoT reports are compiled using
actual sales figures and provide an up-to-date trading position statement.
David
Danning, Director of Trelawney Garden Centre, Wadebridge, said: “The last few
years for us, Christmas sales have been disappointing, along with many others,
and it was so pleasing to start to see a reverse in that trend this year.
“We
have a renewed confidence in the department and have looked in detail at our
layout and selection for the coming year. As the BoT figures are
broken down into each product group we can see where we have done particularly
well and those areas we need to work at harder. Retailing in this day and age
isn’t easy and information like this is paramount to help us grow and to
survive.”
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