34 | Sector Focus: Decking & Garden Products
SUMMARY
■Demand for garden products slowed in 2023
■Glee is returning to its traditional September dates
■Power Sheds has a new log cabin manufacturing facility
■Hutton’s commercial grade furniture is doing well
GROUND WORKS
The boom times may be over for now but business is still blossoming for the timber garden products sector. Sally Spencer reports
This time last year no one in the timber decking and garden products sector was expecting the 2023 season to be spectacular following the boom times of the lockdown era and it’s fair to say that those expectations were met. “In 2021 and 2022 sales were at unsustainable levels everywhere in the market,” said David Twigg, director at Severn Valley Woodworks, which markets its garden products under the Hutton brand and sells to timber merchants, garden centres and country stores.
“Inevitably they slowed up in 2023 and much of the reason for that is that in 2021/2022 people had bought and committed to product – having previously struggled with supply – and created high levels of stock against hopeful levels of demand. But with life returning to a degree of normality, that demand wasn’t there and we saw people sitting on large volumes of stock, which in turn impacted the level of supply.” Zest’s core business is with garden centres as well as offering an increasing number of its products to online garden retail customers.
It also offers customers the option to buy a small number of products for home delivery direct from itself, although this is still a very small part of Zest’s overall business. Simon Davison, head of commercial development at Zest, agrees that customers were looking to reduce, rather than bolster their stocks last year and that there were other factors at play, too. “The market continued to be challenging in 2023 and fluctuating timber prices is part of the equation,” he said. “The feedback from customers was that their focus during 2023
Above: The Terraza Outdoor Kitchen range is Zest’s standout product for this season TTJ | March/April 2024 |
www.ttjonline.com
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