Sales surge expected on real Christmas trees
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Wyevale Garden Centres has predicted that this weekend will see a surge in sales of real trees, with tens of thousands of trees being sold in their centres at their annual Real Tree Weekend events.
The garden centre retailer predicts that they will see a +11% YOY sales rise on its real Christmas trees this year, selling more than enough trees to fill London’s iconic Wembley Stadium, with more than one million shoppers through their doors.
As a recent survey by Wyevale Garden Centres and YouGov has shown, demand for real trees amongst British consumers remains high, with the YouGov survey demonstrating that now one in five of us would prefer a fragrant real tree that drops needles as opposed to a non-needle dropping tree with no scent. This has been reflected in the buying habits of Wyevale Garden Centres, the retailer has increased their buy of the Fraser Fir and Norway Spruce varieties that are particularly fragrant by 25% YOY.
Traditionally, the Nordman Fir is the most popular option for real Christmas trees, however over the past few years Wyevale Garden Centres have been pioneering a more sparse ‘Swedish’ style of Nordman Fir. This style is exclusive to Wyevale Garden Centres and is the result of tailored in-the-field pruning of the trees that creates larger gaps between branches. This more lightweight look is a response to the rising customer demand the retailer has seen for real trees that can cater for their oversized tree decorations. The retailer also predicts XXL trees to be as popular as ever, they have seen demand for trees of 6ft and above grow year on year, especially amongst their male shoppers. Insight gathered from the YouGov survey supports this observation, with Dads proving the most likely to buy a bigger Christmas tree.
Despite the ambitions of Dads for huge trees, Mums are most likely to take charge of buying the family Christmas tree. When it comes to decorating the tree, 84% of British parents said they would allow their children to decorate the tree. Furthermore, when asked if they re-decorate the tree afterwards, less than half of mums and dads admit to doing so.
David Mitchell, Christmas tree expert at Wyevale Garden Centres says: "We’re expecting to see thousands of families through our doors to choose their real trees, especially with the Real Tree Weekend events taking place in centre on the 3rd & 4th and 10th & 11th of December. The first weekend of December is always when we see the first surge in real trees sales as we move in to December and people feel that Christmas is finally on the approach."
David continues: "The quality of the trees we sell at Wyevale Garden Centres is undisputed, our trees are pruned by hand more than twenty times in their life-cycle and genuine craftsmanship goes into creating this truly artisanal product. We are so confident in that our real trees will stay looking good until Christmas, that if shoppers aren’t completely happy we’ll replace their tree for free any time before Christmas Day.
"This year we have experienced a cool snap during the autumn season, unlike the continuous warm autumn’s we have seen in the past couple of years, creating the perfect growing conditions for these trees. Cool weather at the final stage of growth for these trees prompts them to go into hibernation, ensuring they retain water and will stay in great shape for longer."
Wyevale Garden Centres Real Tree Weekends
The Real Tree Weekends will be taking place at Wyevale Garden Centres up and down the country on the following dates:
- Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th December
- Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th December
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