The weather may not be great for gardening – as reduced year-on-year sales volumes in our Veg 2 Gro and Growing Media charts indicate – but total garden centre volume sales were up on the past two years for the fifth consecutive week.
With core gardening products holding their own and wild bird care sales down on last year, possibly largely due to the milder weather, it could be catering and gifts that are keeping sales up as we move into February.
Appropriately enough, garden centre buyers were out in force this week at Spring Fair, the year’s biggest gift-buying fixture. Gifts have become a mainstay of the garden retail market and trade buyers invest every bit as much care in selecting their offer as they do when buying garden products.
In many ways, it is more challenging, especially for small buying teams faced with Spring Fair’s seemingly endless sea of exhibitors. We spotted plenty of garden centre interest in the two products pictured.
GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year
- Garden Products – static
- Veg-2-Gro – down 31%
- Growing Media – down 17%
- All items index – up 6%
Pictured: Compelling display ideas by Solmate Socks (catchline: ‘Life’s too short for matching socks’) were inspiring buyers at Spring Fair. With colour a vital ingredient in the candle accessories market, these new Daisy Burst votive holders from a lustre mosaic range by Village Candle should have a bright future.
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