Since Mintel’s last report into Garden Products Retailing sales have not been so buoyant and the market has declined in value terms to an estimated £5.18 billion in 2005 down from its peak of £5.89 billion in 2003. Albeit that since the last report the market has steadily declined this obscures the fact that certain sectors of the market have performed better than others.

The biggest factor as ever affecting particularly traditional garden products has been the weather. A series of poor spring conditions, which the subsequent summer months have done little to rectify have made trading difficult. The encroachment of the DIY store on the traditional garden centre territory has continued unabated, although each is creating its own niche within the market. The strength of non-DIY multiples is gathering pace as well. The competitive pressure is one of the factors driving the traditional garden centre business to evolve into the large-scale destination driven attractions that some of them have become. It has also resulted in their expansion into complementary product areas, which often take up a significant amount of retailing space.

The boost received by the market from an active house moving market has more recently been working in reverse with a slowdown in house moves being accompanied by less interest in developing the garden from an investment and sale appeal perspective. Although interest in gardening is changing there does however remain a healthy level of interest in it, which is a reassuring sign for the continuity of the market. This changing profile of gardener presents new challenges for the industry and this report considers in part how the various retailers are addressing this. There is an increasing focus of attention on the development of outside living space.

At the core of the report is Mintel’s exclusive consumer research identifying which garden products consumers buy and where and identifying what their attitudes are to garden products, garden centres and gardening in general.