News headlines about gloom and doom for the UK’s retail sector have become depressingly familiar but one sector at least continues to be strong – garden products. “According to Euromonitor International the gardening sector will show a healthy 4.8% growth in 2018, reaching £4.6bn at retail sales value,” said Vicky Nuttall, director of the Garden Industry Manufacturers’ Association (GIMA).
“Bricks and mortar specialist garden retailers such as garden centres continue to develop as destination centres, offering a wide range of products and experiences to the consumer,” she continued. “They also continue to sell a good range of timber garden products, but ease of construction seems to be the focus, with more complex and bulky items such as sheds, summerhouses and fences moving more towards retailers with online presence and home delivery solutions.” Manufacturers and merchants bear this out – although 2018 was very much a game of two halves.
“The start of the season was slow due to the prolonged spell of cold weather and the ‘beast from the east’,” said Guy Grainger, chief executive at Forest Garden. “Then as soon as we got past Easter, the clocks changed, the weather brightened and things changed almost overnight. Our home delivery service is a real measure of consumer demand and we saw a really steep peak in demand, which remained high across most of the late spring and early summer.”
While Forest’s shed and traditional fence panel business was in line with 2017 sales, other lines performed strongly in 2018. “Our new small storage range was a huge success and we also did well with furniture, decorative fence panels and garden buildings.” Mr Grainger added that 2019 is already looking strong.
“We’re starting the year with new customer wins, which has boosted our store fulfilment business, the biggest home delivery offer we’ve ever had and innovative new products.” Hutton, the garden products arm of Severn Valley Woodworks, also has new customers and reported a strong sales year.
“We opened more new accounts at Glee 2018 than ever before, even though there were more competitors at the show,” said David Twigg, director. “Last year was better than expected. It was a record for our timber business and Hutton ranges grew by 9%. And 2019 has started extremely well.” He added that decking, which is sold under the Severn Valley Woodworks brand, saw a 24% uplift in volume last year on 2017’s sales, which were already “significant”. Zest 4 Leisure, the garden products division of P&A Group, also had a good Glee, reporting “a huge amount of interest” in its new and existing ranges. According to Alwyn Williams, head of Zest 4 Leisure, Zest experienced 40% growth last year.
It too had a slow start to the year, thanks to the poor weather but then “everything went off with a bang”, said Mr Williams. “The development of our nine acre site outside Chester has made a huge difference, giving us the space to stock a wider range and improve our efficiencies in warehousing and distribution. The Saltney site has enabled us to offer our customers a wider range of products, which are distributed nationwide and, new for 2019, deliveries to the Republic of Ireland.”
February’s unexpected heat wave brought people out into their gardens much earlier than usual and if the trend continues the sector is in for a prolonged season, which will start long before Easter.
“The fact that Easter is later this year also means there is less risk of poor weather over this key selling period,” said Mr Grainger. “Overall we’re anticipating a more normal seasonal pattern demand and build up compared to 2018.”
Of course, for a fencing boost, manufacturers are really hoping for a short spell of high winds and remain prepared for the next storm. “We have over 375,000 fence panels in stock, so we are ready for it,” said Mr Grainger. He added that whereas a traditional lap panel might be an “urgent distress purchase” following a storm, Forest is seeing a move toward premium and higher priced decorative panels.
“We have seen huge growth in our contemporary slatted panels and our decibel noise reduction panel,” he said. Most manufacturers had expected the ‘grow-your-own’ trend to have peaked – with one commenting that it’s certainly easier and possibly cheaper to buy your fruit and veg from Aldi these days. However, horticultural ranges are still going well.
“With the introduction of a few key products such as our stepped herb planter, which was a GIMA award finalist at Glee, sales in this area have increased,” said Zest’s Alwyn Williams. “Products such as our veg bed and the vertical planter are very popular as it makes gardening accessible for all ages.”
Forest also reports this product sector is up year-on-year, adding that sleepers and planters are now incorporated into garden design. “In fact it’s the smaller items like these that can dramatically change the look of your garden for a modest investment.”
Larger ticket items such as summerhouses, arbours and sheds have also performed well. “We launched our Herefordshire arbour and Purley shelter at Glee and both have sold incredibly well so far,” said Hutton’s David Twigg. He added that it is essential to keep developing new products and reviewing and tweaking old ones in order to keep the proposition fresh.
“We have done that very successfully, partly because we’ve spent time asking customers what they want from us. They have come up with some very refreshing suggestions and we would be daft not to listen to them. This year when we go to Glee we will probably have more products than we did last year and may even limit what we take and leave some on the backburner for 2020.”
Zest’s larger garden items have been well received and pre-season sales have been very good, said Mr Williams. “It’s great to see new, large pieces – such as our Noah arbour – being well received. Statement pieces are an investment for the gardener but many homeowners enjoy the fact that our gazebos and pavilions provide an extra room in the garden, so they can spend more time outdoors.”
He added that the company has an exciting range of new products, including furniture and decorative items in the pipeline, ready for launch at SOLEX in July.
Last year Forest focused on its aforementioned small storage range, while this year it is promoting a mix of new products across different categories. This includes a new range of corner sheds and summerhouses, new contemporary fencing, as well as premium tongue and groove panels. It has also launched its innovative Infinity arch and arbour, which “frame and give depth” to the garden and on premium, more decorative sheds, which it has the facility to hand build.
“These are not only functional but look stunning, too,” said Mr Grainger. “We’ve introduced two new ‘Forest Retreat’ sheds, which are constructed from premium kiln-dried redwood overlap boards. They are installed by our fitting teams, come ready painted in a choice of three colours and are finished with a cedar shingle roof.” Colour is a new area for Forest and these retreat sheds are its first venture into painted finishes.
“We undertook significant research into the colours and we’re launching with moss green, natural cream and pebble grey.”
Premium products are very much the order of the day for French manufacturer Piveteaubois. The company’s diverse range of garden and landscaping products include fencing, fence panels, acoustic panels, timber and composite decking (and cladding), trellises and screens, pergolas, carports, gazebos, landscape timbers, picnic tables, benches, planters and timber swimming pools. It produces 85,000m3 of garden and landscaping products and 500,000m2 of timber and composite decking per year.
Customers sometimes find the company’s garden and landscaping catalogue “too overwhelming”, said Elisabeth Piveteau, UK export manager. So a fencing and landscaping brochure for the UK market was put together at the end of last year.
“Quality, durability, expertise and design are the key to our success in the market,” said Ms Piveteau. “We have a team of four in-house ‘specifiers’ who talk to architects and specifiers every day and bring back ideas for new designs and products. We have an in-house design and engineering office, which talks to our production team and every year creates new innovative products and profiles. “We try to bring improvements on existing products from an installation point of view (easier, faster, modular and so on) and from an aesthetics point of view. Gardens have become places to live in so our customers look for harmony and style. Places that are pleasing to the eye and that make people feel better.”
The durability of Piveteaubois’ products is underpinned by its exclusive DURAPIN treatment technology. This has enabled the company to provide a warranty for its Use Class 4 timber of 20 years above ground and 15 years in ground contact.
Fellow exporter to the UK, BYKO-LAT, which is now owned by Bergs Timber, continues to develop its market position in the UK and has seen strong sales and good demand across its full range of garden products and particular demand for its T&G and featheredge gates.
UK agent Nick Apperley at DP Agency said BYKO is able to offer both standard and bespoke items and anticipates developing these products during 2019.
Keeping on top of demand and new product development has called for investment in manufacturing facilities and technology. Hutton, for example, has a new moulding line and is confident it will make a considerable contribution to capacity and capability.
“You can never stand still in this industry and we constantly review plant and equipment,” said Mr Twigg.
Meanwhile, Forest will have completed the final stage of its three-year investment programme in fence panel automation by the end of this month.
“This technology has more than exceeded our expectations; reducing production times and delivering stronger, consistent quality across our fence panel ranges,” said Mr Grainger. “Up to 75% of our panel output is now manufactured through this process but the technology gives us the ability to increase productive capacity overnight to meet any demand from a major storm event.”
Forest’s ability to turn on the taps was demonstrated earlier this year following the fire at its M&M Timber division.
“While the fire caused some damage to part of one building and some equipment the M&M team have been simply outstanding, through adversity, pulling together to get production back up and running after only 10 days,” said Mr Grainger.
“As part of our disaster recovery programme the Group’s Lockerbie sawmill mirrors the M&M capabilities and is currently supporting some of the capacity requirements but we expect M&M to be back operating normally by May. The critical point is that there’s been not a flicker of disruption of supply to customers.” M&M’s sales are reported to be significantly up on last year and the agricultural market has started strong this year, with demand up 25%.
