A panel of key garden industry players was quizzed on the role of the internet and social media, price deflation and the garden centres of the future at this week’s HTA Garden Futures Conference.

Matthew Bent (Bents Garden & Home), Sam Bosworth (Bosworth’s Garden Centre and director of Choice Marketing), Julian Winfield (Haskins Garden Centres) and Adrian Davey (commercial director, Hozelock) faced questions from trade journalist Matthew Appleby.

The answers suggested that garden centres were taking a softly-softy approach to e-commerce.

Julian Winfield said Haskins was taking a laid-back view until it could be sure it could make money from the internet.

Matthew Bent predicted e-commerce could grow to 10-15% of Bents’ business but the company saw the main role of the internet as a customer service, for information gathering. “To make e-commerce work you have to do it in a big way and do it well,” he added.

Sam Bosworth (pictured, left) believed that garden centres needed to be ready for increasing usage of the internet over the next 10 years.

Adrian Davey (pictured, right) confirmed that Hozelock did not use the internet transactionally but worked with garden centres on promoting its more specialised products.

On price points, Sam Bosworth expressed disappointment that some suppliers had de-speced products to meet price points during the recession. “We want to sell products that will last and live up to expectations,” he said.

Adrian Davey said: “It has to be about the quality. Customers will not remember the price if it is giving them what they want.”

Matthew Bent agreed that quality was key. “Returns are bad news for us and suppliers,” he added, giving solar lighting as an example.

Asked whether garden centres would all look the same in the future, Matthew Bent said: “I hope not!  I hope the industry retains its individuality – that will be the key to competing with Wyevale and Dobbies. We have to look outside the industry for inspiration.”

Julian Winfield: “I am happy for big groups to be around us because we have something different that stands out. Our businesses have evolved but there are things we do sell that perhaps we should not, like indoor furniture. It’s been successful for three or four years but I question it.”

Sam Bosworth: Choice (buying group) is trying to attract new members but we do not all want to be the same. We are all different and people are reluctant to be told what to buy but the range we buy [centrally] is relatively small. They’re the things we all would buy anyway. The things that differentiate us as independent businesses are plants, gifts and catering, which are difficult areas for us in which to work as a group.”

On the role of social media:

Julian Winfield: “We are looking at it. We have to change our view, because customers are communicating with us by email and Facebook.”

Matthew Bent: “We are targeting it more and more. When a customer found a piece of plastic in their food and posted it on Twitter, we were able to find out right away where she was in the store and sort it out.”