A year ago this week we were ‘celebrating’ the re-opening of garden centres after Lockdown #1 and there were queues outside stores as customers sought to catch up for lost time in their gardens and make the most of their outside spaces while the pandemic lockdown and restrictions continued.
Now we can see the effect of lockdown on a whole year’s worth of sales data following on from that memorable re-opening. GTN Bestsellers Epos data for all sales indicates that in the period from Week 21 (2020) to Week 20 (2021) garden centre volume sales were up by 42% compared to the same period leading up to re-opening, which is no surprise after the seven weeks of enforced closure, and 17% up on the same period across 2018 to 2019.
That 17% represents a phenomenal growth in sales activity, especially when you factor in that restaurants were closed for most of that time, social distancing measures restricted footfall, furniture and other products were in short supply and the weather so far this year has been anything but ‘normal’.
When the weather improves – it has to, doesn’t it? – we could be in for another bumper summer of sales.
Please note our last week, year on year comparisons, below, are now back to 2020.
GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week in 2020: week 20.
- Garden Products Top 50 – down 14%
- Growing Media Top 50 – down 15%
- Veg 2 Gro Top 50 – up 20%
- Wild Bird & Wildlife Care Top 50 – down 28%
GTN Bestsellers All Sales volumes compared to the same week in 2020: week 20.
- All Plants with Barcode index – up 25%
- All Items with Barcode index – up 21%
See the full GTN Bestsellers Top 50 charts, compiled from garden centre Epos data every week, with a years subscription to the printed newsletter for only £145.00 using this link.
