GfK: growth in power tools and gardening markets

Powering towards growth in August within the power tools market:
After some periods of decline in the power tools market over the first four months of the year, the months of May to August have all registered growth. The August trading period was particularly strong and saw growth of 10% in value vs. August 2012. This has resulted in total volume sales for the year to date to August -1% and value +1%.

There is a continued trend of value sales performing ahead of volume due to a number of reasons including brand, product and feature mix. For example, looking at total drills which is the largest sector of the market, year to date to August, sales are -4.1% in units yet +0.5% in value. Within drills we are seeing overall average price rise by 5% over the same time period with cordless now representing over 78% of value sales within drilling, and lithium in turn increasing within that.

Other sectors of the market doing well so far this year include sanders, grinders and glue guns all growing both in volume and value terms. The same is true of saws (the second largest category in power tools) in which the fastest growing segment is circular saws.

Five consecutive months of growth boost gardening market in 2013:
Value sales for the total garden market* have grown by five percent in August 2013 year-to-date (YTD), versus 2012, ahead of the total DIY** category. Despite garden care*** sales YTD to the end of March declining by 46 per cent, five months of consecutive growth have turned the year round to a positive.

Sales of fertilisers (including lawn and plant) grew by 9 percent in value YTD in August 2013, weedkillers 7 per cent and growing media 6 per cent as a number of people took advantage of the dry weather to enjoy their gardens.

Temperatures soared in the month of July and sales of outdoor products boomed with outdoor BBQ sales more than doubling in July year-on-year (YOY), versus 2012 and growing by 107 per cent. More than three times as much money was spent on garden watering equipment in July 2013 versus July 2012. Growth for a number of categories continued into August with fertilisers, growing media and lawn seed all seeing double digit value growth.

Source : Simon Foy - GfK
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