Glee 2026 felt like the start of something new. Across three days at the NEC Birmingham, the garden industry came together against a backdrop of significant change: more extreme and unpredictable weather, changing consumer expectations, evolving retail models and an increasing convergence between garden, home, food, gift and lifestyle.

The show responded to those shifts head-on, with its first co-location with Autumn Fair opening Glee to new audiences and giving garden retailers a broader and more diverse marketplace to explore.

For two days, garden retail sat alongside home, gift, fashion and lifestyle, creating opportunities for exhibitors to meet buyers they might not traditionally encounter and for visitors to source across categories that increasingly sit side by side within modern destination garden centres. That wider reach was reflected in the breadth of buyers attending, with major garden-centre groups including Blue Diamond, British Garden Centres, Dobbies, Haskins, Hillier, Notcutts, Squire’s and Webbs joined by names from the wider retail, leisure and visitor-attraction landscape, including B&Q, John Lewis, Aldi, QVC, Robert Dyas, Wickes and The Range.

One buyer summed up the benefit neatly: “Being able to see everything together in one go works really well for me. There are lots of suppliers I already know, plus plenty I haven’t come across before.”

Matthew Mein, Event Director for Glee and Autumn Fair, said: “Glee 2026 feels like the start of an exciting new chapter. Bringing Glee and Autumn Fair together created new opportunities for discovery and opened our exhibitors to buyers they may not traditionally meet, while giving garden retailers access to an even broader range of products and ideas. What has been particularly encouraging is that the positivity translated into meaningful business conversations and very strong commitment to 2027.”

Business being done

The commercial value of the show was evident across the halls. First-time exhibitor Pretty Wild Seeds secured a substantial order on day one and has already booked a larger space for 2027, while Nest for Nature met a major customer within its first hour.

Night Lark used Glee to test the potential for its coverless bedding proposition within garden retail and came away with strong validation from buyers, as well as a Glee New Product Award. “Glee delivered exactly what we had hoped for: meaningful conversations, enthusiastic responses and exciting opportunities to bring Night Lark to more customers,” the company said.

ElectRoad also enjoyed a highly successful garden-retail debut, with its EV charging proposition generating strong conversations around how garden centres can turn their car parks into commercially productive assets. Its success was capped by winning the Glee New Product Award for Retail Services, adding further momentum to a proposition built around additional revenue, customer dwell time and sustainability.

Richard Eppings of ElectRoad said: “Glee exceeded our expectations. We came to the show wanting to start a different conversation with garden retailers about the commercial potential of EV charging, and the response was incredibly encouraging. Winning the New Product Award was a fantastic endorsement, but just as valuable were the conversations we had with retailers who could immediately see how charging can support revenue, dwell time and the wider customer experience.”

Those examples reflected a wider shift in the makeup of the show. Beauty, bedding, gifting, technology, home improvement, EV charging and lifestyle brands increasingly sat alongside tools, plants, growing media and garden care, mirroring the way garden centres themselves are evolving into broader, year-round destinations. For retailers, the opportunity is no longer simply about adding more categories, but finding the right ones to increase dwell time, broaden spend and create stronger reasons to visit throughout the year.

More than a buying show

Glee also reinforced its role as a place to learn as well as buy. Well-attended seminar sessions explored productivity, profitability, staffing, sustainability, water, technology, food and customer behaviour, with contributions from Dobbies, Blue Diamond, Hillier, Squire’s, the National Trust, Wave and the HTA.

The most useful sessions were grounded in practical examples that visitors could take back into their own businesses. Hillier shared how its eight-year sustainability journey had helped reduce energy usage by 23% through its “Switch It Off” campaign, while other sessions explored water management, automation, workforce pressures and the profitability of food operations.

Innovation was also front and centre. Several hundred entries across 19 categories made the New Product Showcase a focal point for buyers looking to explore new ideas, understand what is changing and get an early read on emerging trends. Award winners reported a noticeable influx of interest and increased traffic to their stands after the results were announced, reinforcing the Showcase’s role as both a discovery tool and a useful barometer of new commercial potential.

Where the next opportunities are emerging

Food and hospitality generated renewed energy. The expanded Food at Glee proposition brought together suppliers including Farmhouse Biscuits, Whittard, Beanworks, Brakes, Arrange, Datekin, Easy Jose, iSqueeze and Full Range, with generous sampling helping to attract buyers and spark conversations around cafés, restaurants, food halls and retail ranges.

The bigger discussion, however, was about how garden-centre catering itself is evolving. With food already a significant revenue stream for many operators, attention is shifting towards what the next phase might look like, from better coffee and smarter menu engineering to more sophisticated food halls, automation and better use of restaurant space. There was a definite sense that garden-centre catering may be entering another period of evolution, with retailers looking again at how hospitality can drive footfall, dwell time, loyalty and profit.

Climate adaptation provided another of the show’s clearest future-facing themes. Following another summer of extreme temperatures, exhibitors across Glee launched products designed around hotter, drier and increasingly unpredictable conditions.

Watering and water-saving stood out as perhaps the clearest emerging commercial opportunity, alongside soil health, moisture retention, drought resilience, irrigation and more climate-appropriate approaches to planting. Significantly, the response was not confined to one product category; the same challenge was being addressed from multiple directions across the exhibition, pointing to a wider shift in both product development and retail thinking.

All of this raises an important question for the industry: how will climate change alter the way people approach gardening? If hotter, drier and more volatile seasons become increasingly normal, consumers will need different products, more detailed advice and potentially different plants and garden designs. Glee 2026 suggested that the industry is already beginning to respond, moving from reacting to extreme weather towards designing for it.

Confidence building into 2027

Glee 2026 did not ignore the pressures facing the sector. Costs, labour, consumer behaviour and increasingly volatile weather remain major challenges, and Blue Diamond’s Alan Roper used his keynote to argue that businesses cannot simply wait for easier trading conditions. His emphasis on productivity, technology, people and efficiency chimed with much of what was happening elsewhere at the event, creating an overall picture of a sector focused on adaptation and future-proofing rather than retreat.

Perhaps the strongest endorsement of Glee 2026 came before the event had even finished. More than 68% were booked for Glee 2027 during the show itself, with further commitments following in the days afterwards. There was also a clear trend towards returning exhibitors selecting larger spaces, translating this years’ experience into increased investment for next year.

The co-location will develop further too. Autumn Fair will run from 5th to 8th September 2027, with Glee taking place from 6th to 8th September, meaning both events will operate alongside one another for the full three days of Glee.

For Glee, 2026 marked the start of a new chapter: broader in audience, stronger in commercial opportunity and increasingly aligned with the way garden retail itself is evolving. New buyers, new categories, practical learning, product innovation and strong early rebooking all pointed in the same direction.

Glee did not simply reflect where garden retail is today; it offered a clear view of where the sector could go next.  Find out more: www.gleebirmingham.com