Autumn/Winter Prep

Written by Nigel Thompson, Sales Director at Stewart

There are lots of easy wins in the autumn for consumers and retailers alike, it's not all about ‘Garden Tidy'. Quick wins can be some colourful pots and containers to bring out some affordable instant garden colour.

We have seen pots and planters perform strongly again in 2013 particularly decorative pots with double digit growth for the second year running. Decorative pots provide an attractive looking planter that is easy to transport and move without the fears of weight or indeed it breaking and cracking.

The 2013 gardening season started late and has continued throughout August and September, this has been a strong season and consumers are now back in their gardens for the first time in three years in a meaningful way. We need to give them every encouragement to stay there and enjoy the garden!

Stewart Garden are supporting retailers in the autumn with promotional deals as the gardening consumer is certainly ‘value savvy'. Retailers need to have a mix of promotional offer in the autumn to provide for this.

Autumn is an ideal time to ‘get ahead' so start collecting your garden waste in composters and start early by harvesting water throughout the autumn and winter, most consumers leave it until there is no water available to fill their water butt when they eventually buy one. We have definitely seen a trend towards larger capacity water butts in 2013.

Retailers should also be preparing for the winter opportunities that present themselves with snow sledges, Christmas tree stands and snow shovels. There has been a trend with adverse weather in recent times for consumers to buy these snow shovels in advance; be it one to keep in the car such as a telescopic one or one for the shed/garage. If retailers don't show them consumers will not buy them!

If the trend of the under 35 year old gardeners using the internet to research products, get new ideas and have a good idea of what they need when they arrive to shop at garden centres continues, our consumers will be more educated than ever before and from a much younger age.