The GCA reports that garden centres enjoyed a good September
The GCA’s BoT figures reveal that its members experienced strong sales in September, which were boosted by early sales of Christmas products
The Garden Centre Association (GCA) has recently released its Barometer of Trade (BoT) figures for September, which reveal that its members enjoyed a ‘good month’, which was boosted by strong sales of Christmas products. The BoT saw an uplift in nearly all the GCA’s 13 categories recorded at member garden centres and also revealed a positive year-to-date variance of +2.22%.
The GCA’s Chief Executive Peter Burks (pictured above) comments: “September was a very good month for our members, with nearly all categories showing an increase, the notable exceptions being furniture and houseplants.
“Fortunately, the hot week early in the month prompted some strong late furniture sales before most centres packed their remaining stock away, thus mitigating the negative impact that slow furniture sales have had all year.
“Overall, gardening-related sales were very strong and it’s great to see that autumn planting is going well. This positive outdoor trend was extended to include hard landscaping, which also enjoyed a good month at last and, yet again, food hall and catering sales showed impressive increases over last year. In addition it was also heartening to see early Christmas sales have got off to a promising start.”
The best category in September was the sale of Christmas related products, which were up at 31.72%, followed by food hall/farm shop sales, up at 14.65%, catering at 14.47% and then hard landscaping at +10.67%.
Clothing also performed well in September and was up at 8.88%, as did pet and aquatics, which was +5.08% when compared to August 2022. Gifts were up at 4.22%, outdoor plants at 3.96%, garden sundries at 7% and seeds and bulbs at 0.93%
According to September’s BoT results, houseplants were down -4.67%, furniture and BBQ sales were -3.77% and other miscellaneous items were recorded as -0.31%.
The GCA BoT reports are compiled using actual sales figures and provide an up-to-date trading position statement. They are made available mid-month following the end of the prior month after all member garden centres have submitted their results, thus enabling GCA members to compare their trading positions with other centres.
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