Boyd Douglas-Davies Boyd Douglas-Davies has seen remarkable amounts of activity at his Hilltop Group
Gardens centres through the country are backing up the encouraging GTN Bestsellers data with reports of huge customer activity.
Boyd Douglas-Davies from the Hillview Group said: “Our Hilltop Garden Centre in Oxfordshire is over 35% up in December and our Studley Garden Centre in Warwickshire is up 22%. At both centres we have increased the size of the Christmas departments and the range of gift products. Hilltop has a real ice rink which is open until 6 January.”
Bob Hewitt from Klondyke Garden Centres added: “Our garden centre sales increased 4% last week over the previous year with our restaurant sales up 10%.”
Bents Garden Centre in Cheshire reported a record number of visitors (9,880) on December 2 and also had their best ever sales week at the end of November.
Matthew Bent, Managing Director at Bents Garden & Home, commented: “Summer was literally a wash out so it’s great to be able to report such fantastic figures for the Christmas period. It seems as though people are eager to forget about the poor summer months and the glum outlook and are just keen to focus on now and enjoying Christmas as much as possible.”
Martin Stewart, from Stewarts Gardenlands in Dorset, said: “Amazing trading – it shows how vital it has been to build up to Christmas, catering and gift sales. The past 8 weeks have saved the year.”
And Simon Edwards from Golden Acres Garden Centres, who have five sites across the south of England, said: “Our Christmas sales have been up significantly across all our sites and Christmas tree sales have been strong. I put this down to our product ranging and Christmas merchandising which is consistent and matches our market whilst avoiding clashing with competitors either in the industry or outside. I think that the punters are fed up of austerity and are treating themselves to a bit of fun.”
Martin Davies from Raglan Garden Centre, Monmouthshire, pointed out: “Sales of decorations are up 15%, lights and artificial trees up 3% and live tree also up 3%. Houseplants are a real winner for us at this time of year as we give them a better position and as a result sales are up 46%. Our breakfast with Santa events sold out early this year.”
Thge final word was left to Andrew Maxted, HTA Director of Marketing and Communications. He said: “Despite challenging times it seems that consumers are still willing to enjoy the Christmas period and this is mirrored by the recent sales figures that we see in UK garden centres. It has been a tough year for the industry and so this busy festive period provides some welcome relief.”
