February Garden Centre Sales Down On 2021

The headline figure from the GCA Barometer of Trade is that garden centre revenues were up 26% on February last year.

However, if catering figures are excluded, then gardening sales last month were down -12% on average, but +12% higher than in pre-pandemic 2020.  This is probably quite a good result as much of the month was wet and windy as was 2020.

Average sales values fell from £35.50 last year to £31.04, a decline of -13%, despite price increases.  This suggests that although customers were still visiting in February, they were buying less and this was the reason for lower revenues.

The biggest faller was garden sundries (-21% on 2020), but they were up +19% on 2 years ago.  Outdoor plants fell -5%, but this is a strong figure as they are +31% ahead of 2 years ago.

In contrast, gift sales gained +6% on 2021, probably because of their interdependence with catering sales, but they were lower (-1%) than in 2020.

Catering

The average catering spend increased from £9.10 in February 2020 to £11.77 in 2022.  This indicates a significant fall in numbers of visitors as total income was down by 25% on 2 years ago.

There is no catering comparison with 2021 as restaurants were closed due to Covid restrictions.

Source : Reproduced with permission from George Bullivant, Gardenforum

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