Great season for Garden Centres but caution remains

For Haskins, the standout performer at +20% was the garden goods department, ahead of garden plants at +13%. 

Garden furniture and barbecues have seen mixed results. 

Garden furniture and barbecues have seen mixed results. 

Hillier has seen strong performance across all gardening categories this year, but garden furniture and barbecues really stood out. A better early spring helped drive demand, with garden furniture sales up 11.5% and barbecues seeing a significant 62.5% increase.

Yorkshire Garden Centres also had a good season with garden furniture, especially with its own label range.  However, Perrywood said that garden furniture had performed less well and at Highfield Garden World, in Gloucestershire, outdoor Furniture has been a bit stop and start. 

Blue Diamond noted that furniture sales are patchy and that the garden centres that succeed are those that proactively sell it.

There was a similarly mixed message with barbecues. Highfield reported strong sales, while Perrywood noted that barbecues haven’t quite matched the same upward trend. Poplars believes that garden centres have lost the barbeque trade to the Internet and doesn't see it coming back.

Delivery issues

With the prolonged strong sales, garden centres might have expected delayed deliveries and shortages as the season progressed. Squire’s spoke for many when they said, “On the whole we have been served very well by our suppliers in what has been a busy season for them too. There have been a few pinch points but nothing too serious.”

Any delays tended to be with compost but, as Gerald Ingram of Planters Garden Centres explained, they only lasted a few days.

Trends

Identifying trends is hard when the weather had such a dominant influence on sales. However, those mentioned include:

• A decline in pet sales, mirroring the decline in pet ownership post-COVID.
• Strong performance in the food sector for treats and gifting.
• A shift towards metal furniture from resin.
• Decoration for the garden, such as solar lights, cushions (+45%), and screening, is trending.
• Customers are cautious with larger purchases and are looking for value for money.
• Visitors are coming on a leisure visit where comfort, inspiration and good hospitality are vital. “We have fewer ‘pop in, buy what they want and leave’ customers”.   

With the Met Office increasing the odds on a dry summer, how optimistic are you for the rest of the year?

Mark Farnsworth of Yorkshire Garden centre believes there is still a lot of uncertainty around and says this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Alan Roper said we needed the recent rain to prolong the season so now he is more optimistic than if it had remained dry. Once past the end of July sales are less weather related.

But the underlying pressures remain, continued Roper. The season could look different next year if the sun doesn't shine. It is important to get the ship in order. That means the product mix, keeping a point of difference, developing new ranges and, with plants, focusing more on colour. At the same time focusing on staff costs efficiencies and margins.

Adjusting to rising costs

Poplars will adjust trading hours over winter – and expects to close earlier. “Prices have risen across the whole garden centre and we have pushed margins a little further. In addition,” David Little says, “the challenge is to get just one more item in the trolley.”

Scotsdales and Planters delivered a similar message both are controlling employee costs, mainly by reducing hours worked but not at the expense of customer service.

Hillier is putting a greater emphasis on measurement and optimisation—looking closely at which product ranges and merchandising locations deliver the best returns, and making data-led decisions to maximise profitability.

Turning to technology

Perrywood is looking into self-serve tills and ordering via app in their restaurants. Squires has introduced a new point of sale system, replaced its café bar systems and are adding to their HR system to increase its capabilities in rota management.

Your Local Garden centres have introduced new technology in procurement and HR in the last year. “We have continued to install solar panels and average over 2MWh generation per day, about £500 value of electricity per day. All of our centres are air conditioned and we promote ourselves as a comfortable leisure destination through the summer.”

Hillier is introducing a new finance system that will streamline operations, reduce reliance on paper-based processes, and deliver a more integrated approach across the business. This upgrade will also enhance the employee experience—for example, by enabling faster processing of overtime payments.

Attitude to Investment

While there is recognition that continued investment is essential there is also caution.

Poplars’ David Little said, “Further investment is unlikely until we have a clear picture of future taxation on family businesses.” However, he is looking at a new ‘grab and go’ counter adjacent to the restaurant to serve visitors who are using the EV chargers and have 15 to 20 minutes to browse the store and use our facilities.

Several have just completed major investments:

• Scotsdales’ Caroline Owen said, “I am always happy to invest in the business however next year after two years of heavy investment at Shelford I will be taking a year off!”
• Perrywood has completed a significant redevelopment at Sudbury with a new, 4,000m² garden centre complete with a new restaurant and plant area. “This marks an important milestone and underlines our long-term commitment to improving the customer experience,” Hannah Powell says. “We’ll continue investing in marketing to maintain strong footfall across all three centres. We have always invested to improve, and don’t plan to stop now!”   

The general view is that continued investment is essential.

• Tim Mason of the Your Local Garden Centres group wrote, “As long as we can see there is a pay back and it improves our business, we will be investing in the next year. Good investment makes a business more resilient to the unforeseen challenges we all experience and no investment risks moving backwards.”
• Yorkshire’s Mark Farnsworth said, “We have had 3 recent planning approvals and have two more to go in very soon, so we are keen to continue to keep investing in our sites. All of our investments are to improve the profitability of sites and drive high margin categories.”
• Highfield found its new warehouse really useful in storing extra stock, so did not run out at key times. And at ‘long last’ it is installing a full EPOS system to become more efficient. Tim Armstrong added, “Our new Epos will be live in July and we will continue to invest in the site, you cannot sit still you have to look at ways to improve your offering to your customers.”
• Hillier says, “The buoyant season we’re experiencing this year has created a strong platform for us to optimistically continue driving business growth.”

Garden centre performance will be dominated by the weather till the end of July. The recent rains should help to extend plant sales.

From August onwards sales are less weather sensitive. If they can hold onto the gains of the first 5 months for another 2 months, garden centres seem optimistic that 2025 should go down as a good year. But this year has been all about the weather and there is still caution about 2026.