Halfway through June and volume sales continue to run up on last year – 13% up to date according to EPoS data supplied by garden centres for GTN Bestsellers. Last week’s sales even surpassed volumes in the same week of 2013 when we had the previous record June sales after that really dismal April and May of that year.

Increases in plant sales are a major contribution to that volume increase. While judging for The Greatest Plant Retailing Awards, which will be announced and presented at the HTA National Plant Show on Tuesday next week, plant teams are revelling in high sales with so much still looking good – the general consensus is that the season is still two weeks behind and the hope is that sales will continue through well into July.

Continued high sales levels for the last two weeks of June should push year to date volumes back up to level with last year at the halfway point for 2015.

With SOLEX just around the corner, more good weather will be welcome to sell through more barbecues and garden furniture. Most centres are reporting good sales so far this year, but a sell-out as thoughts start to turn to Christmas preparation would be ideal!

GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year...

• Garden Products – up 2%
• Veg-2-Gro Products – up 83%
• Growing Media – up 20%
• All items index – up 13%