Martin Stewart, MD, Stewarts Garden Centres
The sadness of sofas...
Next year will see a steady continuation of what has been going on. The characterless multiple will steadily grow, the opportunities for the fun and dynamic independent will continue to increase.
The irritation of online will carry on getting worse with the tragedy that it is debatable how much profit is being generated in that sector. I don’t think we as a company have ever felt more optimistic that our skills place us in a very strong position.
If I had one wish it would be that concessions with no relation to the main core product should be banned from being inside the front door of a garden centre. How sad I felt recently to be inside what used to be one of the best garden centres in the country to walk by ‘Sofas’. My daughter said: ‘Dad, I feel ill!!’.
Such short term chasing of profit will do long-term lasting damage not only to that garden centre but also to the wider reputation of garden centres in the future.
The future of our business depends on our visitors and potential customers seeing us as genuine, focused, people and plant-based, professional organisations. Not ones that are after any buck they can get.
Alan Roper, CE, Blue Diamond Group
Samey concessions trend will burn out, click-and-collect will keep on growing...and supplier innovation will continue
I don’t see any major shake up in 2016 unless Terra Firma sell off Wyevale, which will of course happen at some point.
Innovation is unlikely in 2016. The industry (or part of it) at the moment seems to be driven towards diluting the identity of garden centres with an endless procession of high street concessions appearing in garden centres, independents, groups – even one well- respected plant-based group. They are all putting in concessions and what’s more, they are all the same concession companies! 
One of the key hallmarks of retailing success is to have a point of difference. This trend delivers the opposite and at some point will burn out unless more imaginative concession partners are sited within the garden centre. As a customer, in some areas, I can go to several garden centres and find the same book, shoe and clothing concessions in differently- owned centres.
I don’t see a surge in e-commerce. To date online growth in furniture and barbecues has been significant; however volumes in other categories have been modest. If you read between the lines (and look at their turnover) e-commerce sites are frustrated at their lack of growth in other key gardening categories.
The exception is click-and-collect, which will continue to grow and improve customer service levels at physical stores. The online plant market transferred from mail order and continues to offer keen gardeners a valuable service. It sits alongside garden centres quite comfortably. Our plant sales continue to grow significantly from a high base, which underlines this point.
Product innovation is so important and in the past year or two suppliers have made good strides in pots and garden features, including solar lighting. I see this continuing in 2016.
One thing I would change? Garden centres I would love to have in Blue Diamond are currently operated by A.N.Other!
