On Monday 23rd March, garden centres across the country took decisions to be part of the solution for the COVID-19 Emergency and closed their doors. That means this is the last week we can produce the GTN Bestsellers Newsletter and Top 50 Charts for a while.
We’d like to say well done to all the owners and managers who made the decisions to close so quickly. We know many of you were determined to keep the doors open but the risks of being party to any increased spread of the virus became really evident last weekend and the GTN Bestsellers EPoS analysis bears that out. Total sales last week were close to Easter or May Bank Holiday levels and the highest level for the third week of March since 2011.
We’ve also taken decisions not to ask printers to work on our behalf, hence this newsletter being printed in the office on this occasion. We are also not publishing the April issue of Garden Trade News as that would be sent to thousands of garden centres where nobody is at work. GTN Xtra will continue to be published on-line during the crisis and if you have any news you’d like to get out there please contact trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk
There are many challenges ahead of us all regarding business continuity and business recovery. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this challenges and ideas for business recovery please let me know and we can share them vis GTN Xtra.
Also, while we’re are not able to create charts for the next few weeks if there are any ideas you have for longer term analysis from the GTN Bestsellers database then please do ask.
Stay safe and well.
GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 12
• Garden Products Top 50 – up 39%
• Growing Media Top 50 – up 137%
• Wild Bird Care Top 50 – up 32%
• Veg 2 Gro Top 50 – up 119%
GTN Bestsellers All Sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 12
• All Plants index – up 20%
• All Items index – up 28%
Trevor Pfeiffer trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk
07973 504214 Potting Shed Press Ltd.