SECTOR FOCUS: GARDEN CENTRES RIGHT: Ohh Deer refitted the greeting card and stationery space at Yarnton Garden Centre last year.
The Blossoming Garden Centre Trade Garden centres in the UK have reinvented themselves over the last decade. Once places primarily visited for plants, compost, pots and tools, garden centres are now blossoming into retail destinations with stationery, greeting cards and gifting ranges becoming a core component of the product offering.
G BELOW: Legami display at a Squires Garden Centre. BELOW RIGHT: Yop & Tom is having great success with its new gardening journal.
arden centre operators continue to increase their revenue by diversifying away from traditional garden centre products. Gone are the days when sales revolved solely around the spring planting season. “It used to be that March, April and May were the big months in garden centres, but now there’s something of interest 12 months a year,” says Peter Burks, chairman of the Garden Centre Association (GCA). This year-round appeal is thanks to non-horticultural categories, such as stationery, greeting cards and giftware. According to the GCA’s Barometer of Trade, gift sales (which include greeting cards and stationery) are up 6.75% yearto-date as of March. “Greeting cards alone can represent up to 30% of total gift category sales, thanks to their high sales-persquare-foot ratio and strong profit margins,” states Peter. “Our members tell us that they often hear
visitors saying they only came for a cup of coffee, but left with a selection of greeting cards,” reflects Peter. And it’s not just greeting cards that customers are picking up as impulse purchases. As the stationery ranges have expanded - offering more highquality and varied products - garden centre visitors are increasingly finding themselves tempted by journals, pens, notebooks and even washi tape. Laura Davies, head of gift sales at Stone Marketing, sees this shift as a key opportunity. “For us, garden centres are a growing channel within stationery, as more of them become a one-stop shop for customers,” she says. “We’ve found that our stationery brands Legami, Faber-Castell, Midori and mt Masking Tape work particularly well in this channel. “Legami offers collectable pickup stationery lines that are hugely popular with children and adults alike, Faber-Castell’s classic and highquality stationery is great for gifting, Midori has both fun and functional Japanese stationery within its range that offers something different to the more traditional British brands and mt Masking Tape is perfect for art
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and craft projects or wrapping gifts,” Laura explains. She emphasises that stationery in garden centres is being thoughtfully integrated and often merchandised in creative ways. “The stationery product mix tends to be very varied and is often displayed in a less traditional way, sometimes merchandised alongside plush toys or even plants.” Part of what makes stationery such a growth area in garden centres is its cross-generational appeal. “With consumers of all ages now spending time most weeks in garden centres, I see stationery sales in this sector continuing to grow,” says Laura. It’s a sentiment shared by Caroline Chatwin, buyer for toys and recreation at Dobbies Garden Centres, one of the UK’s leading chains. She points to a shift in