Despite declines across many of the 19 garden care categories that GfK track, sales of wild bird care products have achieved 1.5% value growth on the previous year.
This may at first appear to be a relatively positive performance, however it is important to look at the context; October to December 2011 saw a 21% value decline vs. the same months in 2010. So despite the growth in 2012, the market has not recovered to the same level of value it was in 2010.
With this marginal value growth in 2012, volume sales are showing a marginal decline of 1.1% vs. 2011. This is largely driven by a decline from the largest category, bird food.
Bird feeders however, have achieved value and volume growth in 2012, and with the recent snowfall in January it is likely the total bird care category will continue to report positive figures.
