August sunshine helped boost garden centre sales

The Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) Barometer of Trade (BoT) results for August have revealed a better month for member garden centres’ sales as a result of the sunshine.

The results, which are compiled using actual sales figures and provide an up-to-date trading position statement, revealed overall sales were up 5.37% as compared to August 2011.

Peter Burks, Chairman of the GCA, explained: “For most of this year we have seen a consistent theme of only three areas of trade performing particularly well at our member garden centres: catering, clothing and gifts. August was a much better month all round and this is largely due to the sunshine.

“The wet weather this year has meant outdoor furniture and barbecue sales have suffered, but in August this category was up by 11.34% as compared to the same month last year, which is a great result.

“Outdoor plant sales have also suffered, with most months not managing to top last year’s figures, however in August sales were up 1.78% as compared to August 2011. Garden sundries were up 6.39% and pets and aquatics 5.62%.”

The BoT reports produced by the GCA allow member garden centres to compare their trading positions with other GCA garden centres.

Peter continued: “Catering continues to do extremely well, up 9.76% in August and now up 8.42% for the year to date. Clothing was up 6.65% and gifts up 3.91%.

“The only area with notably slow trade was seeds and bulbs, which was 24.18% down. Our members will be pushing for autumn planting this year so we are hoping this will boost figures going forward.”

Barton Grange Garden Centre saw an increase in plant sales during the month.

Russell Winteridge, General Manager of Barton Grange Garden Centre at Brock, explained: “For us, sales of outdoor plants really picked up in August after a slow start and we actually had much better plant sales in August than we’d had the year before.”

Source : Garden & Hardware News
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