A positive forecast from two industry juggernauts, plus a deeper dive into customer and staff retention, and a host of inspiration for confidently moving forward in a turbulent market was the order of the day at the recent GIMA Day Conference (14 March, Wyboston Lakes, Bedford).  

Leading the conversation were representatives from Dobbies and British Garden Centres who unveiled their plans for the future and how suppliers have an important role to play within these development plans.

Graeme Jenkins CEO, and Richard Hodges, Commercial Director at Dobbies joined the conference, explaining to delegates how the group is all set up to deliver spring now they are debt free following the recent refinancing by Ares Management.  He described the company’s five-point growth including enhancing existing sites and restaurants; driving digital engagement; securing customer loyalty through continued growth of their successful customer loyalty programme; as well as opening a new site at Antrim, redeveloping Reading, and rolling out more little dobbies.

Boyd Douglas-Davies, PR and Plants Director and Amy Stubbs, Project and Development Manager at British Garden Centres outlined the family history and values of the business being flexible, adaptive, reactive, and sustainable. They also spoke of the unique business philosophy that empowers the managers across all 62 stores to decide on stock to ensure a localised customer experience.  The independence of stores is the key differentiation as each is unique for its loyal customer base.  This builds a strong family relationship with each local community which is demonstrated by the high engagement through its Family Loyalty Card.

Elsewhere, delegates learned from Scarlet Opus’ Phil Pond more about the new types of consumers that are creating a new narrative in-store and paving the way for future sales. These included “Freethinkers” who are questioning everything after the distrust that has occurred over the past few years and the “Modern Stoics” who want their garden products supercharged with benefits to enhance their lives, as well as the “New Protagonists” who are looking to achieve long-lasting wellbeing improvement through their gardens.

Jack Sweeney, Director at JDS Strategists, led a 'Catchphrase' themed session, exploring the business-critical difference between data and insight, and why insight work is so important to making better decisions.  He argued the case that quantitative data has become too dominant in our world, meaning many businesses don't unlock the power of qualitative data. Furthermore, too much employee time is spent generating reports, as opposed to actually trying to make sense of them.

Jack offered solutions including his top tips on personal mindset and company culture and left delegates with a distinct takeaway: ‘Data – Insight - Action’ or “What? So What? Now What?’. Through the action of asking these questions, Jack believes it becomes easier for businesses to join the dots, connect the jigsaw and ultimately, deliver business growth. 

Tor Newcombe, Senior Recruitment Consultant at More People discussed the “War for Talent”, which focuses on skill shortages in the sector and the current low-employee market. Tor’s session highlighted the importance of keeping current staff engaged as well as attracting new talent into your business.  Tor emphasised how staff retention is key and how you can motivate through a company’s culture and values, management structure, responsibility, and upskilling current staff and providing them with the tools to succeed.

She also highlighted the company’s ethos of promoting the garden industry to new starters by talking with universities, colleges, and schools to educate those entering work about the benefits of working in such an exciting sector.

GIMA’s Director, Vicky Nuttall said: “As an industry trade association, we recognise that we have a responsibility to our members to provide a platform for discussion and thought leadership following what has been an unstable couple of years.   We’d like to thank all speakers for inspiring the attendees with the knowledge and skills to navigate the many external pressures that have impacted our industry and we hope they take the insight back to implement in their business for future growth.”