Association Comment: GCA A positive start to the year


My first few months as GCAChairman has been non-stop. I have been busy working alongside Chairman Elect, Will Blake, on strengthening our relationships with our member centres and I am looking forward to getting together with many of them at various events throughout the year. By Tammy Woodhouse, GCAChairman.


One of the first events we hosted this year, albeit virtually, was our online AGM and awards presentation day. We announced the winners of our Christmas and Ruxley Rose competitions, as well as our garden centre awards, followed by our pre- season inspection presentation to help centres prepare for spring 2022. It was a huge success. I’d like to thank everyone who attended virtually and congratulate all of the winners. It’s been a positive start to the year. Catering


sales have been fantastic. They were 5,804.29% up in January compared to the same month in 2021. Sales in catering in February were also up 5,458.63%, clothing sales were up 17.08% and gift sales were up 10.7%. Things have continued to remain relatively


normal for the majority of our member centres and, at the time of writing this, they are now starting to ramp themselves up for one of the busiest times of the year, spring, featuring the long Easter. This is the first seasonal event we’ve had in


two years where there will be no restrictions in place across the whole of the UK, and we have everything crossed that the great British weather will be on our side too. There’s lots more to look forward to this year,


including the return of the RHS Chelsea Flower in the spring, and of course, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations taking place in June. The Jubilee is a key event in the calendar for


our member garden centres and many of them are already busy in the planning stages. It is a great opportunity for people to come together, after a turbulent two years, and do what they do best, celebrate! Centres can really make the most of it in all departments, selling themed plants and decorations, creating displays and hosting their own tea parties in their cafés and restaurants. Our inspectors will be starting their annual


visits to garden centres shortly. These inspections are integral in ensuring our members are offering a consistently excellent service to consumers and improving their retail standards, which is what all our garden centres


Entering new product categories


Andy Campbell, independent business development consultant, specialising in the gardening and DIY sectors, provides some advice on investing in new ranges.


If you are considering getting involved in new ranges that take you into significantly different market territory than you currently have experience of, there are two main strategies that can be adopted. At one end there is the approach of simply


taking a modest representation of the range, putting it out and seeing what happens. If it doesn’t work it won’t have cost you much and if it does, you can build on the learning from the initial trial. At the other end of the spectrum is a structured and methodical approach to researching the market thoroughly before diving in a bigger and bolder way. The advantages of the first approach are that


you can get going quickly, it is low risk and you start learning straight way. But the danger is that what you learn will be severely limited and it could take a long time before you fully realise the potential of the range, during which competitors might move faster or if there is a fashion element to the offer you may find that


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you only catch the tail end of the opportunity, because the market has moved on. Therefore, as a general principle I favour the


more analytical approach, still supported by good commercial judgement. This involves gathering as much market data together from a variety of sources, to try and understand the scale and direction the market is taking. It also covers gaining an understanding of who the customers are likely to be, who else is retailing in this sector and what the supply base is like. The potential suppliers are normally an excellent source of both factual and anecdotal information about the market and the consumer, as well as the competitive situation. An approach that works well is to identify


which outlets are considered to be leading the market forward, then visit and benchmark their offer. In terms of the range stocked, quality levels, price-points, promotional approach, merchandising and display, customer service and marketing. The next challenge is deciding the best way to approach the opportunity for


your own organisation. It then makes sense to run these past colleagues within the business to gain their input and buy-in, as well as respected and trusted friends and acquaintances within the industry who might already be involved in the sector to take a sanity check on your thoughts. When you have been through this exercise


and reassured yourself that the initiative is worthwhile, will meet your sales and profit expectation and the benefits, both financial and the less tangible, will outweigh all the costs, then it is time to move on to implementation. The advantages of adopting this style of


approach are that you are much more likely to hit the ground running, the new offer will have much greater impact especially with the customer, your learning will be fast track and the chances of making a good return significantly increased. Yes – the risks might be perceived as being higher. All I would say though is that good research and analysis goes a long way to mitigate this risk.


GCU Spring 2022


must do to remain in our association. Each centre is assessed across all its departments


and scored accordingly. The scoring system is very detailed with more than 200 separate criteria for the inspector to assess. This includes everything from the website, telephone answering, and then when they arrive on-site, through to roadside signage and car parking and on all the way through the various retail departments. Later in the year we will be hosting our


regional award meetings where staff get together and are presented with feedback from the inspectors. This is really helpful for everyone involved and a good way for members to see what others are doing well and what they can work on themselves. Many of our members say the annual


inspections are one of the most beneficial reasons for joining us, as they can learn so much and keep on improving year after year.


• For further information, please call 01244 952170 or visit www.gca.org.uk.


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