July sales volumes are heading towards being the lowest for the past four years according to Epos data supplied to GTN for our weekly Bestsellers analysis.  That doesn’t equate to bad news for garden centre turnovers, however, as increased sales of higher value furniture, BBQ and other garden leisure items mean tills have been ringing and profits growing.

Time will tell if summer holiday garden centre attractions boost footfall and volume sales during August.  Will pure entertainment attractions prove to be a greater pull for business or will the garden and education related ideas deliver a better return?

At Aylett Nurseries in St Albans they have a double attraction of their Celebration Garden, which looks as good as any RHS of National Trust garden, and a “pop-up” Butterfly House.  General Manager Geoff Lucas said they were already seeing good sales of butterfly and insect related product sales and Plant Manager Marcus Cousins reports that Dahlia sales are ahead of last year as a result of people seeing them planted in the Celebration Garden.

See our gallery of pictures below.

• Garden Products Top 50 – down 30%
• Growing Media Top 50 – down 22%
• Veg 2 Gro Products Top 50 – up 15%
• All Plants index – down 11%
• All Items index – down 5%