The headline says it all...it’s tough out there, both from a weather and business point of view. No matter how you look at the current set of figures in the GTN Bestsellers data, sales volumes make difficult reading. And until the temperatures start to rise again it’s going to be a challenging period for garden centre retailers and suppliers.This is how GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compare to the same week last year:
Garden Products – Down 42%
Veg 2 Gro – Down 43%
Growing Media – Down 68%
All items index – Down 39%
And if it hadn’t been for catering and wild bird care, which look to be even with last year on Bestsellers data – it could have been worse.
However, Gardman said this week that overall sales of their wildbird care products in the first quarter had soared by 17% compared with the same period last year. Energy suet products showed the highest growth. The significant increase in bird feed sales has also had a halo effect on feeder sales, which saw a 7.5% rise over last year.
Latest research from GfK reports that from January 2012 to January 2013, wild bird care product sales overall grew by 6.8% in value and 5.5 percent in volume.
Wild bird food accounted for 80% of total sales, with 20% for bird feeders and accessories. This increase can safely be attributed to the harsh winter. Some 40% of annual wild bird care sales value was seen in the four months from October 2012 to January 2013.
It will be interesting to see how Easter trading fares although the weather forecasters are predicting that the bleak conditions will continue into next week.
Let us know how your Easter weekend goes. Have you come up with extra restaurant promotions for the holiday period to tempt people in despite the cold? Email trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk
