Mother’s Day week saw garden centre sales peak at the highest level of the year so far and on a par with the last week before lockdown #1 last year. As a result the GTN Bestsellers All Products Index now sits at 3.2% up year on year. That’s an amazing turn around from being 52% down after two weeks of February and all the more impressive considering restaurants are closed and social distancing and stay at home measures are keeping footfall low.
It’s gardening, gardening and more gardening that is beating all records. According to the GTN Bestsellers Epos data, plant sales are now 44% up on last year, Veg-2-Gro lines are 81% up, growing media has soared to 37% up and garden products are now 6% ahead of 2020.
In the past we may have assumed these early season sales will be experienced gardeners getting ahead of the game, but that doesn’t appear to be the case this year. Garden centres are reporting the majority of their current gardening sales are to new customers and that many of their older, keener gardening customers are still to venture out to get growing. Are you experiencing this ‘New Gardener’ boom, and how are you maximinsing on the sales opportunities? Email trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk
GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 10.
- Garden Products Top 50 – up 67%
- Growing Media Top 50 – up 95%
- Veg 2 Gro Top 50 – up 299%
- Wild Bird & Wildlife Care Top 50 – down 20%
GTN Bestsellers All Sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 10.
- All Plants with Barcode index – up 104%
- All Items with Barcode index – up 72%
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