As we currently trade through the busiest time of the year for this category, it’s a good time to reflect on how the year has gone.
Overall, our Garden Centre Association (GCA) members that input their sales into our Barometer of Trade (BoT), currently more than 110 of them, are showing total year-to-date sales of plus 8.24%.
The good news is that giftware sales are running slightly above that for the year at plus 8.73%, with every month in 2025 showing an increase over the same month in 2024. The peak increase came in May – not the month you’d expect the greatest gift sales, but I believe indicative of how gifts are now perceived in garden centres – at a huge plus 18%.
Clothing has also done very well, being up by 5.92% year-to-date and showing increases in every month except for one.
The retail environment has improved so much in recent years across the industry. I heard a comment from a long-standing garden centre customer recently who said garden centres used to be cold and damp, but that is definitely no longer the case.
I’m sure that this person’s perceptions are what is being reflected in the sales figures we are now reporting. The range and quality of the gift offering in garden centres, throughout the year, has never been better.
And I think that continuity and sureness in the offering is also something customers are relishing. The gift area no longer shrinks in the busy spring gardening season and takes on a dusty forgotten look. This means customers can come to a garden centre, knowing they can find the perfect gift, or to solve a problem.
Gift areas then do really come into their own as they get fused in with the Christmas offering and the department can really expand in terms of product range. At Christmas time, we do see a change in the age demographic of the customer and I think that the success of the Christmas offer is helping to bring those younger shoppers in for gifts all through the year.
Good news for footfall in the centre and also for footfall into the restaurants. The quality of the Christmas events is another factor in getting these younger people into garden centres.
Grottos, circuses and ice rinks being just a few of the winter offers available. The numbers that are attracted to the Santa’s grottos are quite staggering with 50,000 visitors being the highest I have heard quoted.
It has traditionally been difficult to attract younger visitors for just a gardening offer, but now that the ice is broken with the Christmas offer, and events, these customers are now comfortable visiting all year round. The addition of these young families means a good range of children’s toys is a big new area of trade. Centres are now the solution to buying gifts for birthday parties.
So, the future of this category, moving into the new year, looks very healthy and is a very important part of any successful garden centre
