Last year turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag for manufacturers of garden products. Those for whom fencing makes up a significant proportion of their business view it as a “challenging year”, particularly towards the end, while others, for whom the focus is on more decorative items and furniture say it was a record breaker. “Demand dropped away in 2017 due to fairly benign weather conditions, coupled with the fact that the condition of fencing out in consumers properties was probably the best it had been for many years on the back of prior storm replacements,” said John Gomersall, sales director at Forest Garden Group.
He added that business balanced out thanks to growth in the company’s home delivered products and, in particular, sheds. And Forest has had a “solid start” this year. It’s a similar story at Grange Fencing where sales and marketing director Paul Taylor is optimistic about the 2018 market after a slow end to 2017.
“There are some really encouraging signs coming through now, the order book is looking strong and the enquiry levels are good,” he said.
Meanwhile, over at Severn Valley Woodworks, sales of its Hutton-branded products broke previous records in 2017. Director David Twigg puts this improvement down to a good, rather than a fantastic market and “working very hard to service and create demand.”
“This year has started off a little better than last year so at this stage we have every reason to be positive,” he said.
Zest 4 Leisure, the garden products arm of the P&A Group, also put its hand up to “another record-breaking year” in 2017 and said the good times have rolled into this year. Latvian manufacturer Byko Lat also had a good year for its fencing and garden products in the UK market.
“Despite the concerns over Brexit we achieved the targets we had set and generated new business,” said Nick Apperley from the UK office.
The sector seems to have acclimatised to the increased cost of imported timber following Brexit-induced currency issues. “As importers the weak pound is always a concern and has and will continue to have an effect on market prices,” said Mr Apperley.
“The only certainty is the uncertainty, to which the market seems to have adjusted.” Uncertainty doesn’t seem to have dented the consumer’s enthusiasm for investing in their gardens and the fortunes of the sector are far more dependent on the weather than they are on the economy.
“I think sometimes when there is that uncertainty people spend a bit more on their gardens, just as they did in the recession,” said Mr Taylor. “Rather than go on holiday they’ll invest in their garden and have more time at home in a pleasant environment.”
And, either way, manufacturers are demonstrating their resilience to the vagaries of sterling and the impact of the current tight supply of some raw material.
“As we are UK based, with our own sawmills processing home-grown timber, we do have an element of protection against currency movements,” said Mr Gomersall. “However, we have seen the cost of round timber rise due to increased home-grown demand as imported material has risen in price. Most of our imported goods are finished products, which are not cost effective to produce in the UK, so the mix has remained relatively consistent.”
He added that Forest continued to ? counteract cost increases by maximising its production efficiencies and that output remains strong as it builds up to the peak selling season. However, it is keeping a close eye on input costs “as these will need recovering should they continue to rise”.
Zest 4 Leisure had already put contingencies in place to address fluctuating currency rates, inflation and rising labour costs and remains confident about the longer-term economic outlook.
“As an example, we invested in SMART product design to ensure production efficiencies and simplify the design process for both new and existing products,” said Alwyn Williams, head of Zest 4 Leisure. Grange no longer manufactures in the UK but points out the benefits of working with its Polish parent, Stelmet, which is putting “huge investment” into the garden products sector.
“The exchange rate does make it more expensive but timber prices are rising quite sharply in the UK now, whereas in Poland they are not increasing as quickly and that give us some benefits,” said Mr Taylor. “And a big part of what our competitors do is imported anyway, so we are almost on a level playing field,” he added.
As mentioned, production is continuing apace in the run-up to the Easter peak. “We are forecast to produce well over a million fence panels and 150,000 sheds this year,” said Mr Gomersall at Forest.
The £80m-turnover company has invested at its sawmills and also in automated processes at its assembly plant in Hartlebury.
“The technology remains unique and rather than publish any details we invite our key customers to view it first hand where they can see the tangible benefits in terms of quality and volume of output,” said Mr Gomersall.
Stelmet’s facility at Grudziadz is still very much state-of-the-art, effectively futureproofing Grange’s supply of products.
Investment in handling equipment and ensuring the ground conditions are ideal for storage continue at the company’s distribution site in Harwich, Essex, which opened about 18 months ago.
Grange’s turnover is around £40m and about 60% of that is fence panels. “We entered the 2018 season with more than 340,000 fence panels on the ground and we can ramp that up very, very quickly,” said Mr Taylor. “We can have stock in the UK within six days.”
Zest 4 Leisure is also primed and ready for a good year.
“We are now operating out of our new nine acre warehouse and distribution centre near Chester, giving us more space to accommodate the wider range of products on offer,” said Ms Williams. “It also means we can send out increased numbers of deliveries across the country.
“With Easter being early this year we have already prepared operationally to deliver the significant growth we anticipate,” she continued. “Our warehouse in Saltney is undergoing continuous development, with the creation of 20 new jobs and the building of new warehousing facilities.”
“One of the things about being in this sector is that investment is inevitable,” said David Twigg at Severn Valley Woodworks. “We are in the process of setting up another Wadkin moulding line, which we bought from AMS (Advanced Machinery Services).” He added that boosting output of Hutton products wasn’t the primary motivation for the investment and that the company favours quality over quantity.
“We just want to maintain the highest quality machining that we can for our customers,” he said.
Hutton launched 11 new products for the 2018 season and “re-engineered” some others. Products that have performed well for the company have included its Cotswold high table and stools and a “utility” table that can be used as a workbench, a potting bench or even a barbecue table.
Shed sales continue to be strong for Hutton and up around 10% on last year. As with its other ranges, the company aims for a robust product when it comes to design.
“We sell it as a budget product but most of our customers sell it on as premium product,” said Mr Twigg. “Many budget sheds are produced from a nominal 16mm shiplap, have cheap flooring, a very thin TGV for the roof and they are not pressure treated. We use a nominal 19mm shiplap and 25mm T&G for the floor and roof – and it is pressure treated.”
Decorative products such as arbours and arches are perhaps more subject to fashion than other garden structures but they are still selling well for some manufacturers. “The bigger ticket products that we introduced last year, the Ashton BBQ shelter and the Broxton gazebo, as well as the Venus arch and others have paid dividends in terms of sales and margin,” said Ms Williams, at Zest 4 Leisure.
“The Norfolk arbour with storage box also performed exceptionally well, supporting our plans for more higher ticket priced items in the future,” she said.
Zest’s new products for 2018 include the Meridian pergola seat; the Emily corner bench with matching coffee table, complementing the existing Emily range; and the large Bahama round table with four stools. Additions to the horticultural range include a tiered herb planter, a square potato planter and the Eaton planter.
“It is still very early in the season but feedback and sales of these new products has been very positive,” said Ms Williams. Forest says that the market for garden buildings has generally been strong and that there will always be demand for the more functional, lower cost options such as sheds and workshops.
“But we are seeing an increasing trend for summerhouses and log cabins,” said Mr Gomersall. “Consumers are becoming even more confident in shopping for these ranges online and we have put huge effort in up scaling our product content and assets for our customers to use on their sites, which is paying dividends.”
Similarly, while horticultural products remain core within Forest’s garden centre channel it is seeing growth within its online customer base.
“They are ideal for home delivery as they are neatly packed for carrier transport.” That said, the trend for grow-your-own products has peaked and there is perhaps slightly less marketing attention devoted to these ranges by some manufacturers.
“Personally I think the grow-your-own frenzy has plateaued,” said Paul Taylor at Grange. “Having said that, there is still a very strong core market for those traditional products such as edging, log sleepers and so on. Certainly from a garden centre or retail perspective there is a big chunk of business on those core landscaping-type products.”
He said that stand out products in the company’s decorative ranges included the Elite St Malo and Elite Meloir fence panels. “Our Contemporary Vogue range of panels is also doing very well and we have structures to complement that – arches and arbours that marry into the look.”
He added that supplying products that gave Grange’s customers more margin, such as the decorative panels, was a key part of the business. Likewise, the company is providing its customers with the opportunity to boost margins by improving the specification of its more “commodity” range of panels.
“Last year we moved to a fully rebated frame and pressure treatment across the whole range,” said Mr Taylor. “We now offer the whole of our fencing range with a 20-year manufacturer’s anti-rot guarantee and we are market leading on that.”
This year Grange is launching a new decorative fence panel and is “focusing heavily” on a new furniture range. “We’ve always had a really strong range of fencing, arches, arbours and structures but have probably lost a bit of presence in the furniture sector, so our main focus is on that this year.”
Forest has also launched higher value lines and said the decibel noise reduction panel it launched last year had generated good revenues both for itself and for its customers. The company has focused on a few key product areas for this season, including a new and improved small storage range, with clear trade up options across the offer.
“This has been well received, particularly by merchants as they can see the benefits of offering as home delivered or special ordered into branch,” said Mr Gomersall.
The company has also relaunched its round timber gazebo range with new roof and furnishing options. These are hand-made at sister company M&M Timber, using their expertise in processing round timbers. In the past the Glee garden and outdoor living show has been the platform for manufacturers to launch new products and market existing ones but opinion is more divided than ever over the effectiveness of this route.
Forest made the decision not to exhibit a few years ago and hasn’t looked back since opening its showroom at its Hartlebury site. Grange has followed suit and also didn’t exhibit last year and hasn’t experienced any negative impact.
“As one of the main manufacturers we should have brand visibility on a day-by-day basis and that is what we actively work towards,” said Mr Taylor. “I’ve also always found Glee to be a little late in the year – the main decisions have already been made.” Conversely, Severn Valley Woodworks enjoyed the show. “I’ve said it so many times but it does get better for us,” said David Twigg. “Hutton generated more new accounts from Glee 2017 than we have done in previous years.”
Byko Lat also reported that it was satisfied with the degree of interest from existing and new buyers despite attendance being “poor”. Zest 4 Leisure was perhaps the biggest fan of the show, hailing it as “one of the best trade shows for Zest so far”.
“We had an enormous amount of interest in our ranges from both new and existing stockists, as well as the ever-growing number of retail e-commerce companies we now work with,” said Ms Williams.
