Last year’s Glee rang the changes by reverting to a Sunday start and this year’s three-day exhibition at the Birmingham NEC saw another new beginning – a relocation to halls 17-20.
The relocation was down to the perceived need to reinvigorate a show which has reduced in size over the years, and to make it more inclusive so that visiting buyers were more likely to circulate around the whole exhibition.
The free-flowing nature of the new setup seems to have worked, with exhibitors generally happy with their new space.
"The new halls seem to be working and we’ve had good traffic to the stand," said Jon Gomersall, sales and marketing director of Forest Garden.
"This show is better than the last three years," said David Twigg, director of Severn Valley Woodworks, which manufactures the Hutton brand of garden products.
"It’s been getting smaller but this year there’s a different atmosphere and it’s been exceptional," he said. "And I can’t knock the Sunday opening as we had the best Sunday we’ve ever had – and the stand was almost overrun with visitors on Monday."
Zest for Leisure also reported "standing room only" on its two-storey stand. "We had a slow start on Sunday morning but then it picked up momentum," said Janet Major, marketing manager. "People want deals now, not just next season, so we’ve had lots of new enquiries."
Of course, the positive vibe has more than a little to do with the upturn in the economy and this year’s weather.
Fencing demand has been unprecedented – surpassing even the peaks of 2007 and 2012 in terms of its depth and longevity.
"It’s been an interesting year," said Jon Gomersall. The fencing market had been flat out up to the end of last year, with the result that the market came out of 2013 with lower stocks than planned. Then, the storms between Christmas and New Year resulted in "conference calls throughout the holiday period discussing how we could mobilise more product," he said.
Sawmill provides head start
Having its own sawmill in Lockerbie gave Forest a head start and it was immediately put on double shifts. More storms in February created further spikes in demand and led to product allocation to support key customers, a situation that continued until just a few weeks ago.
The plan now is to put more stock behind the business. "We have an extra 10 acres of space at Hartlebury, allowing us to put more stock on the ground," said Mr Gomersall. "We plan to run a flatter production, with fewer peaks and troughs, so our message to the trade is that they can rely on us to have the product for them."
Forest’s processing capacity has been further boosted by the acquisition of one of its chief competitors in the garden centres market, M&M Timber, which was announced on January 6 this year.
"It’s a great fit for us," said Mr Gomersall.
"A quarter to a third of M&M’s turnover was with garden centres, so we’ve absorbed that and brought it into our model.
"M&M is now concentrating on developing added-value products and the core round timber markets of landscaping, agricultural and play equipment products, which were previously untapped for Forest."
The marriage of M&M’s processing and treatment expertise and Forest’s operational and marketing skills has paid dividends, said M&M managing director Nigel Poyner.
"All the distribution has gone to Forest’s Hartlebury site and it’s enabled us to concentrate on our core products," said Mr Poyner. "The agricultural market has been very strong – the strongest spring I’ve seen for four or five years – and we’ve had a terrific year for agricised timber."
M&M’s trademark thatched gazebo was showcased on the stand, which featured a mix of the combined companies’ new products. Forest has added five new summerhouses to its collection, including the Honeybourne and Blockley and has extended its range of solid sleeper modular furniture.
It is now also offering tall, slender versions of its planters and two new log stores – the triangular Pinnacle and the Flip Top model. Grange Fencing also reported an exceptionally strong year for fencing "We’d normally be a month into stock build by now but we still have our foot on the gas," said managing director Duncan Hill. "The next big number for us is to produce 100 miles of fencing per week – and we’re not far off that.
"The supply chain has been brilliant, particularly the overseas suppliers," he added. "It’s all in the planning and we have a fantastic stock of finished products and components. We source globally and have real breadth in our supply chain. One of our Latvian sawmill partners is already installing a new line for Grange products."
The key launch for the company at Glee was its new website – www. grangegardensdirect.co.uk. The system works by a customer finding a Grange product on display at a garden centre, picking up a voucher code and then visiting the website. The website shows the RPP prices but sales derived via different garden centres will be discounted. Grange then passes the discount on to the garden centre as a rebate.
"It’s risk free for the stockist and it gives them an extended range of Grange products without them having to find the physical space for them," said Richard Bennett, sales and marketing manager.
"For the customer, products such as arches and pergolas are all considered purchases. People will go to a garden centre for inspiration and then go home and buy online – with this system we can make sure it’s our products they buy."
Home deliveries from garden centres are usually up to a maximum of a 25-mile radius and if they took on internet sales they would have to extend this to nationwide coverage. However, through the new system, Grange takes the delivery challenge away. It already undertakes several hundred deliveries per week from its Telford and Hull distribution hubs and will add a south-east hub in 2015.
Severn Valley Woodworks launched 10 new Hutton brand products at the show, including a first for the company – a range of sheds – plus additions to its planters, log stores, raised veg beds, picnic tables and arbours. A swing seat has been developed for 2015 "by popular demand".
Business this year has been strong, said David Twigg, with production capacity already reached on animal housing, which the company launched in January.
The animal housing is largely destined for the "rural dwelling market" but urbanites have some products to tempt them. "People with smaller gardens still have the same requirements for storage and seating so we’re making robust but smaller footprint sheds and furniture for that market," said Mr Twigg.
Severn Valley Woodworks is now investing to support demands on its production capacity and has already installed a new Weinig moulding line and is erecting an additional 10,000ft² storage building.
Zest for Leisure, the garden products division of the P&A Group, has also invested in its production and storage facilities and the two biomass boilers and chipper it installed last year are fully up and running. Arbours are becoming a speciality for the company, said Janet Major, adding that new additions include the Cheltenham arbour with storage space inside the integral bench seat.
"We think that’s going to be a huge seller," she said.
Other new products for 2015 include the Miami swing seat and, in the Abbey range, new benches, chairs and tables. For fans of grow-your-own, there are new planters and potting tables on offer.
Shropshire-based Norlog UK returned to Glee this year after a short absence. The company first exhibited at the show three years ago to "get the feel of it" before building its stock up to return this year, according to managing director Paul Davies.
The company sells its range of raised ponds, planters, tree seats, wishing wells and Japanese-style gazebos through timber and builders merchants, garden centres and via the internet. It imports its timber from Sweden and makes up the self-assembly kits at its factory in Oswestry.
"We specialise in drop shipments which saves the garden centre or merchant having to hold massive stocks," said Mr Davies.
"We’re in a position to go out and look for bigger customers now," he said, adding that Glee had worked well for him and he intended returning in 2015.
Another sometime Glee exhibitor, Jagram, had a small stand this year. Once a major presence at the show, the Polish manufacturer has adopted a lower profile in the UK through the economic downturn but returned to exhibiting last year after a two-year gap to "keep the Jagram name in people’s minds".
The company, which sells through timber merchants, garden centres and agents, said it had launched some grow-your-own products such as planters and potting benches in 2014 but that, as with some other manufacturers, the storms this year had turned its focus back to its fencing and trellis products. "We’re hoping to focus on more innovative products and grow-your-own ranges next year," said Michal Pryciak, Jagram’s UK sales specialist.
Fellow overseas manufacturer Byko Lat reported that the UK had been proving fruitful in the three years since it entered the market.
"We’ve done what we set out to do and are pleased with the way business is developing," said the company’s UK agent Nick Apperley.
The company, which is part of Norvik Timber Industries (which also includes Jarl Timber, Vika Wood, Laesti and Continental Wood Products), manufactures fence panels, gates, lattice trellis, outdoor furniture, posts, decking, garden structures and other components.
New for the 2015 season are an A-frame picnic table and bench seat, "top end" fence panels and pre-painted picnic tables for self-assembly. Northamptonshire-based Albany Sheds is a Glee stalwart, this being its 25th year of exhibiting at the show. Its products remain fairly constant, said director Tom Burbidge, with its biggest sellers remaining the "bread and butter sheds".
"However, we’ve sold more summerhouses and higher end luxury products this year," he said, adding that the corner summerhouse with contemporary glazing on display at the show was proving popular.
Coats of many colours
Regular Glee exhibitor Cuprinol demonstrated to visiting retailers and wholesalers how best to display products.
The company, part of the Akzo Nobel group, has developed racking split into two bays, the left for "functional" coatings products for decking, sheds, garden furniture and so on and the right for its decorative Garden Shades range.
"There are 30 different colours in the Garden Shades range and we’ve seen exciting growth here because everyone wants to be individual," said a spokesperson. "It’s allowed consumers to let their imaginations run wild and has driven real value into the market."
Don’t slip up
WJ Group, best known as a timber treatments provider, launched a retrofit anti-slip decking insert in January and booked a stand at Glee at the last minute to test the water, saying the exercise had been worthwhile.
"We wanted to see if garden centres are the right outlets for us," said managing director Mark Egglestone.
Deckwright Anti-Slip is available in a variety of colours and is now being produced in a kit form containing 25m of strips, enough for 1.5m² of decking.
