watering & irrigation


Water wisely


As early as 2025, the World Health Organization estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas, and as climate change has had an effect on water resources, it’s never been more important for watering and irrigation to get smart in the gardening industry.


ast year’s intense summer heatwave paved the way for growth in the watering sector, and as the move to more convenience-led and technological based products takes centre stage, companies like Hozelock are noticing a rise in automatic watering systems which will ultimately decrease water wastage. Carol Wright, UK marketing manager at


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Hozelock says: “As always the watering market is a growing one, and we are pleased to see that the growth from last year’s amazing summer has continued into 2019. We have already received a high level of interest in automatic watering systems, this is evidence that gardeners have remembered to get their garden watering in order this year, ahead of the holidays.


She continues: “The growth of the automatic watering market is also now well underway with more gardeners than ever looking to save water and understand the benefits of automatic watering, especially following last year’s record summer.” Carol says products that “enable consumers to


control their garden watering from their mobile phone, and even supplies them with weather information so that they can make last minute adjustments to their system remotely and accurately” are an important way to ensure water


24 | www.gardencentreupdate.com


saving, and says “our factory at Midpoint Birmingham (where over 75% of our products are made), is also managed to ensure water is not wasted as part of the manufacturing process.” As well as this the company believes working with retailers to communicate the message is important, offering “a wide variety of point of sale” and also “produce consumer leaflets that assist gardeners in creating the best possible plan for installing water saving technology in their gardens.”


Gardena sales director, Ulrike Nagel, says the company is “committed to creating products that have sustainability at the core” and “has always been conscious of creating long-lasting products that work very efficiently.” She continues: “We are seeing sustainability


has become an increasingly important topic for our customers. There has been a growing consciousness with consumers looking to brands to provide greener products to suit the new sustainable living that many have taken to, which is feeding into the garden more than ever.” With the end of April being Water Saving Week, Gardena says in light of spreading awareness on this topic, it identified “water- saving was becoming hugely important for the gardening trade” and continual shifts in weather patterns across Europe meant this was an area that needed to be addressed, offering


eco nozzles which uses 40% less water compared to standard hard jets. Ulrike says face to face contact with consumers is important to allow greater understanding of water-efficient products: “Knowledgeable garden centre staff have played a part in educating consumers on this system – highlighting the facts that it saves water, money and above all, time – leading to further convenience.”


She continues: “The brand continues investment in the UK garden centre market and promises to offer staff training while providing inspirational and educational POS solutions and marketing assets.” Gardena says it has “ambitious plans” for its Ambassador Store expansion in the future.


Even with the wet and cold start to May, overall, there has been a continued strong interest in water-saving products and time- saving initiatives. The water-saving element of an irrigation system resonates very well with UK customers this year, and we have seen this trend continue from that of last year when interest really peaked. We have also seen a strong interest in the Sprinkler systems and Water Computers so far in 2019. Customers are also becoming more aware of and receptive to installing automatic irrigation features to manage their gardens.


GCU June 2019


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