The 4^th HTA Catering Conference held in Birmingham this week was the best yet according to many of the attendees.  Delegates found the personal experiences of speakers such as Alan Roper of the Blue Diamond Group and Helen Joyce of Thirsk Garden Centre insightful and interesting. 

One of the most interesting discussion points to re-emerge from the sessions is the age old question should food be covered or uncovered? 

Consultants all rage about cakes and pastries being attractively displayed, piled high on tables within easy reach of customers and indeed is a fashion which started around two years ago.  Time and again however, garden centres say their customers complain about unwrapped and uncovered food. 

The debate is now set to enter a new phase with the High Street trend for ambient temperature sandwiches made with artisan bread.  Apparently sandwiches can be on display, uncovered and not refrigerated for a period of 4 hours in the UK (2 hours in Scotland) which of course does cover the 12.00 till 14.00 traditional lunch time period in a garden centre (57% of garden centre restaurant turnover is taken in this period according to the TGI survey –July2011 to June 2012). 

What will garden centre customers make of this new trend?

Many centres also find it difficult to introduce new recipes and more innovative dishes to their menu’s .  The suggestion is that the over 45’s do not appreciate the new trends but could the answer be as simple as one delegate pointed out, change your methods and recipes at the weekends?  This also rings the changes for catering staff too.

David Denny from the HTA highlighted other interesting facts from the TGI survey which add weight to the case that a change of menu at the weekend could benefit a centre’s turnover.  The under 45 year olds surveyed were not impressed with garden centre restaurants and cafes, the service, the food offer and the  ambience of centre restaurants all scored low. 

As Neville Stein highlighted in his afternoon breakout session of ‘Menu Magic’, the traditional clientele of a garden centre are dying and the audience of delegates were in agreement. 

So how do you attract that younger element in to replace the older one’s?  Could ‘weekend specials’ attract the younger generation? 

Returning to David Denny, with 65% of the adult population visiting garden centres during a year and only 29% visiting specifically for the restaurant, there is plenty of growth possible in garden centre catering operations to attract more diners if they can get it right.

Garden centres are putting on great displays and via media such as Garden Radio promoting Easter activities in-store.  But when it comes to finding garden centre Easter events on websites, potential customers are drawing blanks.

Garden Radio is helping garden centres to take full advantage of the Easter Bank Holiday with in-store messages promoting special offers and activities to customers and the bespoke messages recorded by Garden Radio for March suggest there’s a lot happening in the run-up and during Easter at centres up and down the country.

Garden Radio boss Trevor Pfeiffer says he’s encouraged by the efforts of centres to make full use of Easter trading opportunities and turn the Bank Holiday into a best-selling period.

But the Garden Radio activity is in stark contrast to the lack of Easter promotional material on garden centre websites, a fact that surprised Trevor.

“I surveyed more than 50 websites this wek and it’s almost as though Easter isn’t hapenning,” he said. “Some of the websites I looked at, still had Christmas information posted and one even has details still posted for Easter 2012!."

“With more consumers than ever using websites to plan their leisure activity, I think centres are missing a massive opportunity.”

A number of garden centres are promoting Easter bunny hunts on Garden Radio, including Christies, Knights at Chelsham and Woldingham, Monkton Elm, and Whitehall Lacock.

Baytree’s award-winning pet department is offering 25% off all Vitakraft sticks and drops during March for their rabbit owning customers while Raglan Garden Centre is promoting its home-made Simnel Cake for only £3.50 per slice with a regular tea or coffee.

Bookings are now being taken at Trelawney Garden Centre for breakfast with the Easter bunny.

Although trading laws prevent centres from being open on Easter Sunday, Hawley Garden Centre will be opening their outside plant area only on that day.

There’s a lot more going on, so let’s hope more garden centres update their websites to reflect it.

Meanwhile, welfare organisation ‘Make Mine Chocolate!’ is calling on pet stores throughout the UK to support the Easter Rabbit Sale Amnesty in order to stop the impulse buying of live rabbits. The amnesty being held from March 24 to April 6 is aimed at preventing people from buying a rabbit on impulse at Easter.

In effect pet stores would stop selling rabbits during the amnesty – a reasonable request or not? Let us know by emailing trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk. 

Note: the bestselling Easter products in the GTN Bestsellers charts last week were Vivid Arts’ Baby Rabbits!

Just as we reach the start of the key gardening sales season, the GTN Bestsellers Garden Products chart volume sales index can report that sales to date in 2013 are UP year on year.

Propagation products are still selling well in garden centres with a number of items showing movement in the chart.

Gardman Pricking Out Pots, pack of 20, have seen a 50% increase in sales during the past week to re-enter the Top 50 at No 40. The company’s High Dome Seed Tray Lid, pack of 2, has seen a similar upturn in fortunes and sits a place below in the chart.

Gardman can also claim the highest new entry with their Ice Orb Solar Light jumping straight in to the Top 10 at No 7.

The highest re-entry is Stewart’s Clear Drip Saucer, 5-6 inch, at No 37, while the highest climber accolade goes to Town & Country with their pack of three Ladies Gloves, moving up 10 places to No 21.

There is no movement at the top of the chart with Fito Drip Feeder for Orchids retaining No 1 spot for another week, followed by Westland Earth Matters Chicken Manure Pellets, Gardman Solar Spotlights, and Growth Technology Orchid Myst filling the next three places.

Scotts Levington Tomorite, 1 litre, is another re-entry at No 48.

See the full GTN Garden Products Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £120.00 per year click here 

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

An industry-wide campaign to promote gardening is in prospect following a meeting chaired by HTA director general Carol Paris this week.

Key garden industry players, including retailers, suppliers and other trade bodies, pledged overwhelming support for the idea, which would aim to launch in 2014 and develop further over time.

Mrs Paris said there was wide support from across the industry to get behind a single campaign that would reach out to people with a garden but not yet engaged with gardening. “We really need to work together to grow the garden market,” she added. “Many individual organisations are running good campaigns but there is potential to reach a much greater audience by combining our marketing spend and messaging.

“We need to get people to start thinking about their garden environment or their outside room. Whilst many people want to have a usable and attractive garden, they do not have the  time to focus on this. They need to be inspired and provided with solutions that help them to achieve this.”

Representives from Bransford Webbs Plant Company, Floramedia, Garden & Leisure, GIMA, HTA, Scotsdales Garden Centre, Gardman, RHS and Westland Horticulture attended. The GCA,  Hillview Group, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Stewarts and Suttons Seeds have also indicated support.

A follow up meeting will take place later this month. Anyone who would like to be involved is asked to contact: media.office@the-hta.org.uk

Brand new research by Bayer Garden offers the deepest insight yet into the age-old problem of why consumers walk away from the weedkiller fixture without making a purchase – and a possible solution.

Surveys conducted last season and over Christmas confirmed that consumers still find the weedkiller category a source of bewilderment. While it has long been recognised that this confusion deters purchasers, Paul Lerigo, Bayer Garden’s head of marketing, says the new surveys explain more about why.

Lerigo says the key to making the weedkillers fixture work better – for retail staff as well as consumers – is understanding the way people shop. “We ended up creating ‘decision trees’,” he says. “In other words, what do you have in front of mind when you go shopping, what the thought process is before you make your selection?” For weedkillers, he explains, it’s ‘Where am I going to use it and what am I going to use it on?’.

Consumers already have an idea about this when they enter the store – but struggle because the displays are rarely organised in a way that makes it easy to choose. In other words, all weedkillers generally tend to be lumped together and purchasers have to put in the hard yards to decide which suits their intended purpose. Brand and price, apparently come bottom of the ‘tree’.

Two segments of the category work well, Lerigo says. ‘Lawn’ and ‘Path’ weedkillers offer clear propositions. “The bit that doesn’t work is general purpose. What is a general purpose weedkiller?.” It is this ‘segmentation by area’ that is driving Bayer’s proposals to re-map the fixture - for the benefit of the overall category, not just their own products. Homebase are already using the data to roll out their 2013 displays. ”The one they can’t quite let go of yet is general purpose,” Lerigo adds.

The segmentation takes the consumer from weedkillers for lawn, to cultivated areas (where you intend to re-plant), non-cultivated areas (ground clearance products), then paths, patios and driveways. “That flow seems to make sense in retail, so you can start with lawns and exit on , say, moss and algae killer then extend out, for example, into patio cleaners.” He also believes that retailers who have the confidence to multi-site weedkillers – in the barbecues area, to give just one example – will tap into new sales potential.

Surveys found that more than 50% of people buying a general purpose product use it primarily on paths, patios and driveways, despite a plethora of specialised options. “So products not designed for the purpose are being used on paths. Consumers don’t undertand it – and the purchase almost becomes a distress decision: ‘I’ll take the one I know or I’ve used before.’ What we’re trying to do is make the shopper’s journey simpler, based, on understanding the shopper.

“Weedkillers are used by a broad spectrum of users, from keen gardeners to novices, So it has to be simple. Weedkiller is never at the front of a shopping journey. It’s on a mental list, you know you need it, but that is not why you go to the garden centre. It’s about making that selection simpler.”

Lerigo says garden centres can learn from supermarkets when it comes to marketing science. ”But even they know little about how you shop. They can tell you everything you ever bought from them, but not why you bought it, how you arrived at the purchase or in what order you bought it.”

The technique of deliberately putting bread at the back of the store so you have to walk the whole shop to get to it is well known, but there are other little clues that supermarkets are getting better at understanding consumer thought processes. “You find wine and beer next to baby products – distressed parents like to reward themselves!”

In a category in which people are walking away, says Lerigo, weedkillers still represent a big market to aim for.

An estimated 500 garden centres and suppliers are putting their final plans in place for next Friday’s second annual Garden Re-Leaf Day and weekend

Garden centres include high-profile names like The Garden Centre Group, The Klondyke Group, Scotsdales, Webbs, Squires, Bents and Notcutts and hundreds of  independents, all running events, with the aim of boosting spring customer footfall whilst raising money for the industry’s Greenfingers charity.

Events include a nationally-available Gardening Quiz, featuring questions set and recorded by gardening celebrities; and an HTA-run National Gardening Gift Voucher competition called ‘Find The Winning Plot’. Local initiatives include children’s planting activities, community garden makeovers, in-store ‘plant doctor’ advice, sports challenges, raffles and competitions.

Garden Re-Leaf Day has been actively supported by The Garden Centre Association (GCA) and the Garden Industry Manufacturers Assocation (GIMA).  The QVC shopping channel is also broadcasting two special fund-raising shows on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 March at 9am, donating at least £1 per to Garden Re-Leaf per product sold – with support from Thomson & Morgan, Raymond Evison Clematis, Burgon & Ball and Luxform, among others. William Sinclair Horticulture, Solus and Javado have also made selected products available for resale in aid of Garden Re-Leaf.

Last year’s inaugural Garden Re-Leaf Day raised more than £55,000, enabling specially designed family gardens to be built at hospices in West Dunbartonshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

After hitting the top spot in the GTN Bestsellers Veg-2-Gro chart earlier than in previous years, Allensmore Rhubarb Timperley Early has retained its place at No 1, showing another increase in sales.

Once again it has held off the challenge of onion sets from Taylors and seed potatoes from Unwins.

The highest climber in the chart is Suttons Broad Bean The Sutton Dwarf, which moves up 15 places to No 23.

Meanwhile, the highest re-entry is Taylors Seed Potatoes Taster Pack Charlotte, jumping back into the chart at No 25.

Another notable re-entry is Suttons Onion White Lisbon with a 50% increase in sales seeing it claim No 28 spot.

The highest new entry goes to Albert Bartlett Seed Potatoes 5 Vivaldi, just getting in to the Top 50 at No 49.

Thompson & Morgan have seen sales of their beetroot varieties do well with Boltardy figuring prominently at No 14 while Beetroot Detroit 2 Crimson Globe re-enters at No 48. 

See the full GTN Veg-2-Gro Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £120.00 per year click here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

Town & Country are to donate 25p from the sale of every pair of their Weedmaster Damask and Floral gloves during March, April and May to the Greenfingers charity as part of next week’s Garden Re-Leaf challenge.

The gloves are the UK’s first all-over patterned, nitrile-dipped gloves, using a technology developed by Town & Country to produce a clear dip, which means that for the first time patterns and designs can be applied to all areas of the gloves. The two designs are each available in a choice of three colours and in small and medium ladies sizes. SRP is £5.99 with a special offer price of £4.99.

Retailers ordering a promotional deal comprising 144 pairs (72 in each design) will receive two free display units.

Information 01530 830990

www.townandco.com

Whitewater, the new retail plant centre centre set up by wholesale nursery Hortus Loci near Hook in Hampshire, will celebrate its official opening with a weekend of events over the Easter holiday. 

Activities include plant hunts and talks by award winning Chelsea Flower Show garden designer Jinny Blom and others, nursery tours by MD’s Robin Wallis and Mark Straver, and special weekend offers. Hog roast sandwiches from Hartley Wintney Traditional Butchers will reward purchasing customers.

Wallis and Straver opened the wholesale nursery in October 2011 and have seen it go  from strength to strength. Following a makeover, the nursery will now re-open as Whitewater Nursery and Plant Centre, serving the public as well as professional buyers. Both owners are third generation nurserymen with decades of experience between them and a penchant for “good old fashioned customer service”.

Thanks to its nursery links, Whitewater has access to well over 4000 varieties and claims to be the fastest growing horticultural wholesale nursery in the UK. They say customers will be able to get their hands on the latest plant introductions much sooner than elsewhere, and at competitive prices. Specimen sizes are also available. Hortus Loci will grow 80 percent of the plant material.

Mark and Robin have retained some of the original Whitewater staff and have hired four new team members, including a trainee currently taking his RHS exams and a fruit tree expert.

The nursery is at on the B3349 Hound Green, near Hook.

www.hortusloci.co.uk

Every week GTN receives and analyses epos data from a number of UK garden centres to produce the GTN Bestsellers charts and weekly bestsellers sales tips.

The full charts which provide useful insight into product sales peaks, new trends and new link sales opportunities are published in the weekly GTN Xtra printed newsletter and on the GTN website www.gardentradenews.co.uk.

New for this year, every week we'll give sales volume comparisons with 2011 as well as 2012 to allow your teams to see variations over a three year period.

Access is by subscription only.  For £120.00 per year you and your team can have access to the most upto date gardening sales analysis that has already helped many UK garden centres increase their sales.  To subscribe call 01733 775700, or subscribe on-line here

 

or e-mail karen.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk

Highlights of the GTN Garden Products Bestsellers chart for this week are here

Highlights of the GTN Veg-2-Gro Bestsellers chart for this week are here

Highlights of the GTN Growing Media Bestsellers chart for this week are here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts seriously improve the business of our subscribers.  Invest 15 minutes each week in improving your sales using the GTN Bestsellers charts and your turnover and customer satisfaction will improve too.

Despite the cold temperatures making things difficult for gardeners wanting to work on their veg plots and borders, sales of farmyard manure are on the increase, according to the GTN Bestsellers Growing Media chart.

Arthur Bowers Blended Farm Manure held on to No 2 spot while Westland Gro-Sure Farmyard Manure, 50 litres, jumped eight places to No 3.

Scotts Levington Organic Choice Farmyard Manure, 56 litres, also saw increases in sales, moving up 13 places to No 15.

The highest re-entry this week is Scotts Levington Tomorite Giant Planter with Seaweed at No 35.

See the full GTN Growing Media Bestsellers Chart here.  Subscribers Only

To Subscribe to the full GTN Bestsellers Weekly Charts for only £120.00 per year click here

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts can seriously improve your business.  Only subscribe if you want to invest 15 minutes each week in improving your turnover and customer satisfaction.

The HTA’s Andrew Maxted has left the organisation after nine years in commercial and marketing roles, following a restructuring.

The HTA said the move was part of an ongoing commitment to provide an efficient and cost effective service to members. PR and market Information functions now fall under the business development department headed by Tim Briercliffe and the National Garden Gift Voucher operation falls under the finance and administration function, headed by Paul Basham.

Mr Maxted said working with HTA and its members in such a dynamic industry had been “an absolute privilege”.

“The garden industry is one of the most dynamic  I know,” he added “and it has been a pleasure to meet so many inspirational and entrepreneurial people over the past nine years.”

He said the drive over the past 18 months to refocus the association’s marketing activities had been challenging and rewarding. “I am looking forward to a short rest before seeking new opportunities to put my skills and experience to good use.”

HTA director general Carol Paris said: “2012 was a very difficult year for all of the horticultural industry and it is important that we restructure to keep pace with the changing environment. I have enjoyed working with Andrew Maxted and thank him for his contribution over the past 9 years. I am confident that our new focus and structure will enable us to exceed the expectations of our members and provide them with the support that they need to develop their businesses in these challenging times.”

From 4 March the HTA office will be open for longer each day – 8.30am to 5.30pm – to give members greater access to the association’s resources.

Somerset-based peat and compost company Durstons have signed up to a code of practice that recognises environmentally responsible practices. New 'Responsible Sourcing' criteria will be applied to raw materials as well as their sources.

The criteria take into account the fact that some companies are still using valuable raised bogs to harvest peat, whilst others, such as Durstons, uses peat from agricultural land drained centuries ago which has little or no ecological value.

“Not only does the methodology significantly reduce the negative environmental impact of peat production”, a Durstons spokesman said, “but it also has a positive effect on the local area by creating nationally and internationally important wetland habitats”.

The company say that with a century of investment in the local area behind them, they are committed to long term environmental responsibility across their full product range.

www.durstonsgardenproducts.co.uk

A 3ft garden gnome – dubbed ‘Gnorman’ by an army of Facebook followers – was a surprise sales success for ASDA last week. “In stores and online, it was the best-selling outdoor product!,” a spokesman told GTN Xtra. “Obviously with the recent announcement that the garden gnome ban is being lifted at the Chelsea flower show this year, it's also quite a topical product!"

The hand-painted gnome sells for £25. Visitors to the ASDA’s trading website were greeted with “Sorry…out of stock” notices’ as this issue of Xtra was closing.

Above: (From left) Marcin Schmitt, Kirsty Goble and Julian Winfield enjoy the birthday cake with customers Norman and Audrey Saunders.

Haskins Garden Centre at Roundstone near Worthing celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of the £12 million new centre and restaurant by handing out birthday cake to regular customers.

Serving up the confection, specially made in the Roundstone kitchen, were chief executive Julian Winfield, general manager Kirsty Goble and sous chef Marcin Schmitt. They said that most people were astonished that a year had gone by since local MP Nick Herbert officially opened the centre.

“Fortunately, and despite the best efforts of the economic and environmental climate, the new centre has lived up to the expectations of our customers and our turnover is double that of the original Roundstone garden centre,” Julian said.  “We are delighted that the new centre has been accepted as a vast improvement and is now enjoyed by thousands of visitors each week.”

The recent opening of a Hobbycraft store and other concessions following a £1 million redevelopment of horticultural buildings adjacent to the centre has substantially lifted footfall, making the provision of a 500-space car park a good call.

With gardeners using Easter as the official start of their planting calendar, retailers are this month  being offered help to ensure they make the most of the spring sales boost.

Design and print company Floramedia have created an Easter-themed label and point of sale (POS) targeting impulse buys. There is a label, bench wrap and poster.

Floramedia MD Nick Mathias, said: “These Easter products would be ideal for small to medium-sized retailers, who may not have the money to buy bespoke POS and labels especially for this holiday. We have produced a cost effective solution for them.”

The items can be purchased separately but all have the same linking design.

The A3 posters are correx. The 50m bench wraps are made of recyclable Taco PE, which can be used outdoors. The labels are 70mm by 117mm and come with bamboo information sticks.

www.floramedia.co.uk