The disruption caused by Covid-19 to garden centres is well documented. Over the past 15 months operators have had to respond to the partial easing of restrictions, decisions on how to deal with food and beverage delivery, and supply chain disruption, combined with unforeseeable focused demand on outdoor goods and plants, staffing matters and furlough.
Amidst this, some garden centre concessions were forced to close by government restrictions and some have failed; others have had to consolidate their leased portfolios and the sector has had to reconsider its business model to meet the new circumstances. What became clear though was that there was a renewed love for garden centres and their products, which created a huge opportunity for centres if they could respond promptly.
The sector responded to early lockdowns by moving fast to improve websites to deal efficiently with a sudden substantial increase in online sales. It was vital operators got this right to ensure the reliable delivery of goods and to deal with returns.
The pandemic also prompted some garden centre operators to consider other commercial avenues and opportunities, such as partnerships with retailers or complementary facilities for customers.
In July 2020, Dobbies, the UK’s largest garden centre group, announced a partnership with Sainsbury’s supermarkets where the former will stock Sainsbury’s food products and other basic grocery items within their stores. And early this year Dobbies announced that Bruce’s, a pet day care business, had opened its most recent branch in one of its Surrey garden centres, the second Bruce’s doggy day care to launch at a garden centre location.
This diversification of offering allows centres to be more resilient in the face of disruption in any one part of the business.
The Horticultural Trades Association reported the number of gardeners in the UK rose by 3 million last year, with nearly half of them aged under 45. Seeking to capitalise on this gardening boom we have seen partnerships to bring garden centres closer to the consumer with smaller format garden centre stores opening up on the high street. These stores often feature gardening essentials for city centre residents and will showcase some of the more extensive ranges available at larger stores and online.
At the end of last year Dobbies announced the development of its first small format store, Little Dobbies. Fashion retailer Next added Homebase garden centres to six of its stores in April 2021, and most recently Selfridges launched garden centres at its stores in London, Manchester and Birmingham.
As the lockdown restrictions come to an end, some of the results of this innovation are becoming clear too – in the first quarter of 2021 garden centre sales were up 39 per cent compared with the same period last year, even with footfall restrictions due to social distancing and without sales from fully functioning food and beverage offerings.
Garden centres have proven their ability to move quickly to adapt their offering in response to market changes. Performance has been exceptional over the last few months and there is every reason to expect that the sector will maintain its advantage and further increase its customer base even as alternative attractions and demands on discretionary spend increase.
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