UK Gardening Sales Grew Faster Than In Europe During Lockdown

Around 40 GIMA members tuned in to hear a forecast for UK gardening sales from Euromonitor International (EI). The uplift from Covid will remain but there’s also inflation.

Gardening sales grew faster in the UK than in Europe during the lockdown.  EI's Nick Stene said the biggest drivers for growth were indoor plant sales, seeds, pot plants and garden care.  

Indoor plants have been boosted by, among other things, greater demand from those wanting to improve the look of their home office for Zoom calls.

There has been a step up in the level of gardening during the pandemic and this has not come back down in the first months of 2022.  EI expects that the closer relationship developed with plants during Covid will continue to drive growth. 

Strong work from home ethic

This is in part due to the increased time spent working from home – about double.  UK has one of the strongest work-from-home cultures in the world, although younger generations are becoming more office bound. 

Home is increasingly seen as our safe place, where we shelter from the dark things happening around the world.  Therefore, consumers are giving a greater priority to in-home purchases when deciding how to allocate their discretionary spend.

Hardest period in living memory for planning pricing strategy

Inflation pressures in energy (+30%), materials (+10%), labour (+5%) and shipping (+500%) are leading to price increases. 

EI considers this is one of the hardest periods in living memory for planning pricing strategy.  Ikea announced a price rise of +9% to the market in late 2021 and by the time it reached implementation it needed to become a +12% increase due to how fluid are the inflationary forces.

EI estimates that inflation in garden products is around 10%.   

It’s no longer Just-in-Time

Demand for stock has increased not just because of consumer demand but also due to the change of policy in the supply chain from Just in Time to Just in Case, which leads to a build up of inventories. 

Source : George Bullivant - Gardenforum

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