As B&Q announced sales down by 9% for the first quarter, and Wesfarmers sell off Homebase for £1 after dreadful sales performances, garden centres across the UK are faring much better because of their core product line – plants.
A second bumper week of plant sales, up 34% on the same week last year means the GTN Bestsellers Plant Sales Index has risen not only to parity year on year but to an incredible 3.1% up on 2017 for the year to date.
And that is driving a fast recovery for all garden centre sales. Our index now sits at minus 4.4% and several garden centre owners and managers are speculating about being level year on year by the end of May.
If Wyevale Garden Centres are seeing the same increases no wonder Guy Hands is looking for the good life and selling all 145 centres to close his investment fund.
GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 20
