In This Issue
Christmas Future Trends and GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards Winners to be announced during Glee's on-line Festive Focus Day
CSY in 2020 – Adapting To Change
Alton's praised for tough stance on facemasks
Garden centre owners share their thoughts on being open during Lockdown 3
GARDENA launches Leaf and Grass Collector
The COVID year in numbers
Flymo's 2021 products raise the bar for innovative gardening equipment
Team Smart’s Sue Sharp retires
Boyd's 'no cake and chocolate' pledge takes him into the top 10% of New Year fundraisers
The GTN Xtra Top 100 Most Read Stories of 2020
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Final call for scholarship applications
Order your Begonias from Ball Colegrave now
Expo 2021 Hatay (Turkey) to postpone opening by eight months
Gardeningexpress.co.uk owner closes garden centre during lockdown 3
Launch of The New Heirloom Garden book
The best of last week's
We're Here For You
Dobbies sponsors ITV’s ‘Love Your Weekend’ with Alan Titchmarsh
Millbrook plans for the future of Crowborough centre
Boyd gives up chocolate and cake for a whole year
Bursting fish tank averts aquatic shop blaze
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Perrywood at Christmas 2020 - with correct photo gallery now...
British Garden Centres open their 58th centre at Thatcham
Barton Grange Christmas 2020 - Exclusive GTN Xtra Photo Tour
Squires Badshot Lea - Christmas 2020
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to the GTN Bestsellers printed weekly newsletter
All the latest news from the world of pet products
Pet firm buys Ocado's Fetch brand
Pet Brands releases boredom-busting range of games
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Contact us with your news.

Email trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 07973 504214

 

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The COVID year in numbers
GTN Bestsellers Analysis

Phew what a year that was!  Prior to garden centres closing for the COVID-19 pandemic in March, the All Garden Centre Sales Index, as monitored by GTN Bestsellers from weekly garden centre EPOS data, was running at 3.6% up year on year with indications that, weather permitting, we were heading for an above average year.

 

That all changed with seven weeks of closure during Lockdown 1, when nothing was sold in store and by the time garden centres were added to the list of essential retailers and allowed to re-open the year-on-year deficit had soared to 50.7% down.  That meant if sales were only the same as the previous year for the rest of 2020, we would have lost half a year’s business through being closed for seven of the key gardening weeks of the year.

 

As we all now know, the pent-up demand and the increased number of people making good use of their gardens created a spike in sales, which despite social distancing, saw transaction values double, furniture and BBQ’s sold out, and sales ran ahead of last year for 28 consecutive weeks by an average of just over 20% per week.

 

By the end of week 50 the GTN Bestsellers All Products Sales index had recovered to such an extent that volume sales for the year were only 8.9% down on last year.  A truly amazing result that makes everyone so grateful to be a part of this wonderful sector and hugely grateful for all the lobbying and PR work carried out during Lockdown 1 to enable garden centres to re-open ahead of other retail.

 

Read more analysis and see the GTN Bestsellers sales index graphs for 2020 in GTN's December issue below:

 

 

GTN Bestsellers is a weekly subscription service provided by GTN using EPOS data supplied by garden centres.  A year’s subscription to receive the printed newsletter with Top 50 Bestselling Product Charts every week costs just £145.  Full details and a payment link can be found here.  Or e-mail: trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk

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