As Dobbies were revealing their Christmas 2019 ranges to magazine journalists in London this week, the rest of the garden retail industry was at SOLEX where the atmosphere was incredibly positive for the rest of the summer and optimistic for next year.
The weather is bound to be helping, but the mood was also added to by the high level of new design and innovation at the show. Gone was the sea of weave and that was replaced with stylish contemporary aluminium framed lounge furniture along with fusions of metal, wood, rope and weave.
Everyone we spoke to was confident they would sell through the remains of this year’s stock during the rest of the summer, before they get ready for Christmas. The big question is: how much of the new contemporary designed furniture they feel they can sell next year?
GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year (week 27) Garden Products - down 6% Growing Media - up 28% Wild Bird Care - up 26% Veg-2-Gro - down 9% All Plants Index - down 9% All Items Index - up 23%
