NEWS


Concerns over horticultural industry during pandemic


A major part of the UK’s gardening industry worth £1.4 billion, which includes hundreds of family businesses up and down the country, could be destroyed following the UK coronavirus shutdown, claims the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA).


Peak season has only a matter of weeks left for the horticulture sector which has formed an essential part of British life for over 350 years. It includes the ornamental crop sector, which grows bulbs, bedding plants, cut flowers, pot plants and stock mostly


sold through garden


centres, supermarkets, florists and DIY stores. Around 650 businesses across the UK produce


ornamental


crops, which contribute £1.4 billion in total to the country’s GDP annually and employ over 15,000 people directly and almost 30,000 indirectly. Many of these jobs form a vital lifeline for rural communities.


The perishability and seasonality of plants means that an estimated £200million of seasonal plants will have to be scrapped across the ornamental horticulture industry.


NEWS IN BRIEF


n As part of its global solidarity programme in the fight against the corona crisis, Henkel has announced that it will provide production capacities at short notice in order to produce disinfectants. The


company donated 50,000 litres of disinfectant. n The British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) has published a quarterly economic report. n A leading timber product supplier, Zest 4 Leisure, is relaunching its Zest Direct home delivery service to online retailer customers with the aim of ensuring its customers are able to supply garden products and meet the increased demand in the lockdown period. n The HTA has launched the ‘Plants Near Me’ webpage –plantsnearme. hta.org.uk, allowing the public to find local growers and garden centres that are offering home delivery.


4 DIY WEEK APRIL 2020


Since Mother’s Day weekend when demand is typically high but people were beginning to self-isolate, sales dwindled dramatically, while lockdown means that there is unlikely to be any sales through to the May bank holiday, the busiest trading period of the year. Alan Titchmarsh MBE said: “This spring could well bring about the end of British horticulture as we know it. Hundreds of nursery owners and growers are facing huge losses of plants and revenue simply because the stock they have spent many months nurturing for the spring market - their peak season - will have to be destroyed since garden centres and other outlets are closed for business. This means not only a loss of billions of pounds to the UK economy and of thousands of jobs but, more than this, it will decimate an industry that will be unable to recover for the foreseeable future. “Our gardens and green spaces - the very things that provide spiritual and physical sustenance at times like this - will no longer be able to call upon the variety of plants that are


currently available - a range that has taken decades to develop. Without some form of rescue package, we are destined to see our gardens and public open spaces decline as growers find it impossible to recover from


unsustainable losses.


Businesses will disappear overnight in a situation that will take many years to reverse.” Speaking on behalf of the


HTA, chairman James Barnes said:


“We have hit a perfect storm in the UK. The seasonality and perishability that is unique to our industry means that growers are potentially facing stock losses on an ever-rising scale as each day passes. Stock is one of the biggest components of asset value in the sector - stock write offs will destroy the balance sheets of many and make it impossible for them to continue. “We are calling for the


government to work with the HTA, as


the industry’s


representative body, to come up with a financial support scheme to help those businesses which have had to scrap perishable stock and are facing a huge financial crisis.


Positive registration figures for Christmasworld 2021


Despite coronavirus and the emergency situation worldwide, by now more than 670 exhibitors have decided to attend Christmasworld in Frankfurt am Main from 29 January to 2 February 2021. This means that 90% of the exhibition space is


filled. This underlines the fact


already that


the consumer-goods sector is looking optimistically


the time following the corona crisis. In this mood the encounter


towards


format of a trade fair is playing a decisive role in re-launching from a position of strength into the new season of 2021.


“Our exhibitors and visitors can


benefit from personal interchange at Christmasworld 2020, until our lives have reached normality again. Until then it is a matter of survival for our high-street retailers that they should serve their customers online as well,” said Eva Olbrich, Christmasworld director at Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH.


The HTA claims that while the


government’s financial measures related to the agriculture and horticulture firms are welcome, in many cases they are not suitable for ornamental businesses. Investment in stock means that many nurseries do not have the reserves to take on the debt of a government loan, and often fall out of the scope of any support scheme due to EU state aid rules.


The HTA estimates that a minimum of a third of UK ornamental producers may fail in a matter of weeks, leading to a loss of around £250m in direct GDP contribution to the UK economy annually. Allowing for a 2.4% per annum growth factor, the value of this lost contribution to GDP over five years would be £1.34 billion. Around 70% of bedding plant


sales are made between March and the end of May. Many of these growers are facing huge difficulties and a near complete loss of income due to the coronavirus. Horticulture not only provides


grow your own produce but also contributes to positive physical and mental wellbeing and serves some 23 million gardeners in the UK. The longer-term impact from the failure of the UK businesses will be significant. The wipe out of British commercial growers will increase the volume of imported plants, raising the risk of Britain being hit by plant pests and diseases.


John Lewis launches new virtual service


John Lewis will be boosting support for today’s ‘Virtual Britain’ by transforming and adapting its in-store services and taking them online for the first time to meet the evolving needs of Britain in isolation. The


free and bookable, advice-driven appointments will enable the retailer to provide core services to support the nation during lockdown, maintaining its ambition to be there every step of the way for its customers. Providing advice,


inspiration


and support, talented and specialist Partners will be on hand to guide customers, whether it’s welcoming a new addition to the family or advice on


interior home.


Customers will be able to book free, one-to-one video appointments with knowledgeable experts all from the comfort of their own sofa. The initial launch will include virtual nursery, home design and personal styling advice with further services, inspirational talks and learning sessions planned to launch at the end of April.


The advice includes Free


virtual Nursery appointments, Virtual Home Design and Virtual Styling.


“We are glad to see this major


response – particularly in the current situation.


Smart Plant launches Covid-19 relief fund SmartPlant, the app that


makes plant care simple, is urging anyone and everyone to ‘give old plants new life’ and join the fight to help prevent the collapse of the gardening industry. The aim is to sell off plants that will otherwise end up on the compost heap. After one of the wettest February’s on record and the current Coronavirus epidemic, green space is a luxury we are


all trying to make the most


of. Major garden centres are now closed and the demand for buying plants online is set to skyrocket. SmartPlant have highlighted that many growers and garden centres do not have the infrastructure to service an increasing online demand. In an effort to support the horticultural industry, SmartPlant has set up a site that allows plant lovers to buy bundles of


plants that would otherwise be composted.


The online system for buying


plants has been set up in record breaking time and includes free delivery.


with


SmartPlant has also partnered Blooming


Heroes, a


collective of concerned florists and plants people who have come together to raise funds for the National Emergencies Trust and the NHS Combined


Charities Covid-19 - through a range of wonderful initiatives. The campaign will launch Wednesday 22 April.


www.diyweek.net


“The whole team at the fair will be doing everything they can to offer our customers at the end of January 2021 a valuable and reliable business platform once again,” added Olbrich.


solutions for


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