The appetite for decking is unabated and it is still seen as a major profit maker by garden centres, timber and builders merchants. Just how much of a money maker the decking craze has been can be summed up by the latest statistics issued by B&Q which reveal current annual turnover on decking to be more than £16m a year – and still growing.

Certainly at this year’s Glee there was no obvious diminution in the number of decking products available, although perhaps less promotional emphasis on such lines than in the days when they were still considered novelty products.

Among exhibitors too there was a definite suggestion, summed up by Forest Garden‘s marketing executive Vicky Barker comment that “to keep the decking market forging forward the distributor needs an additional story”.

For Forest that story centres on a system flexible enough to meet the needs of a variety of sites. The key is the use of a plastic framework into which standard decking panels can be slotted. The system itself incorporates storage as well as patio or raised platform space.

This latest addition to the Forest decking and decking accessories collection was one of 56 new products which will be offered to stockists for the season ahead.

Contemporary look

Forest also focused on designs in which timber joins forces with aluminium to give a more contemporary look to garden accessories. Typical of this is a range of aluminium arches roofed with timber rafters.

Also seen as a trend for 2004/5 is an upsurge in the sale of garden buildings and a key new line from Forest is the Livespace summerhouse. It comes with a metal base and framework into which the timber panels that form the main body of the summer are slotted.

Chunky, curvy and green are adjectives that sum up what makes the new Elite series of products from Grange Fencing different. “Designs for the UK market are now much closer in character to the timber products which have always sold most strongly on the continent,” said Grange marketing executive Louise Mason.

The Elite series includes fencing, matching gravel boards and arches, including the Roundhay arch in which the timbers themselves are rounded rather than flat, lending a more rustic appearance to the product.

Grange’s Highland range, which uses natural colour sawn timbers, also has an emphasis on more rounded forms, with fencing panels fitting together to give a wavy top line and arches and roofed structures a distinctively domed silhouette.

Highland series fence panels are designed with gaps between the slats, which means not only that the fence is less likely to topple in high winds than a conventional close boarded panel but also that the householder can enjoy the security of a high level fence but still allow maximum light and air to penetrate their own plot.

An airy approach to fencing was also a key story for Wayland Timber Products which reintroduced the combined timber and PVC fencing panels it showed as prototypes at the 2003 show.

Westwood Timber Products chose Glee as the venue to showcase some neat packaging. “We were told by our stockists that maximising sales on the larger type of timber item required the line to be presented in such a way that, having seen a completed structure on the show ground, the consumer’s decision to purchase is often dependent on them being able to take it away in an easy to carry home form.

“We have answered this demand by producing a 9x8ft structure packaged in such a manner that it can easily fit into the back of a Ford Fiesta,” he continued.

Offices in the garden

For manufacturers of timber garden buildings the impetus moving the market forward appears to be the number of consumers who now work from home.

Dunster House’s new Tamar line has been designed specifically with this function in mind. “Retailing at just £2,640 the Tamar is one of the most competitively priced timber buildings of its type currently available in the UK,” it claimed.

Sturdily constructed, the cabin is equipped with lift and turn windows and double entry doors.

New timber lines from Hall’s concentrate on storage facilities for the smaller garden which, as Hall’s David Boswell pointed out, is fast becoming the UK norm.

Two new sizes of deal shed, 6x3ft and 4x3ft both with apex roofs, were introduced at the show and met with what Mr Boswell described as “a very enthusiastic response” from Glee visitors not least because these sheds will be very competitively prices at around £100 for the smaller and £150 for the larger version.

But if Hall’s is targeting the extreme budget end of the shed scene, Cotswold Cabins sees the greatest opportunity for sales growth as being at the upper end. At Glee Geoff Brown and his team were eager to discuss the quartet of new cabins made from heavyweight, kiln-dried Baltic timber which will be available to stockists from January 2005.

A feature of the range will be double-glazed windows and the double entry doors and retail prices are expected to start at around £4,000.

In the areas of Glee devoted to garden and patio furniture the trend toward mixed materials which began two years ago seems to be a continuing feature of the market. Most exhibitors, however, report that the overall trend of the market is trading up, with householders whose original purchases were plastic or resin moving on to more luxurious ranges of seating, tables and ancillary, occasional furniture items. And in this sector teak still reigns supreme.