The annual Garden Re-Leaf Day Sponsored Walk and Cycle Challenge have become an integral part of the Garden Re-Leaf activities, and this year the event will be finding itself a new home within the heart of the Chilterns.

 

The 2020 start point will be Chilton Garden centre, newly acquired by British Garden Centres in September last year. From here the walkers will have a choice of a 10-mile or 20-mile route, both of which will take them on a stunning tour of the Chiltern Hills, a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Cyclists will also embark upon either a 25, 50, 75 or 100-mile route that could take in the 276m elevation that enables the Chilterns to provide stunning views across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

 

The team at the Horticultural Trades Association have kindly offered to plan the walking routes, as well as opening the doors to its office ‘Horticulture House’ in Chilton as the end point for the day’s activities, where refreshments and a welcome place to rest will be made available.

 

To date, eager teams from Evergreen Garden Care, Far Plants, and Hornby Whitefoot PR have all signed up or pledged their support to take part in the sponsored walk or cycle challenge, with even more teams and individuals expected to sign up in the coming weeks. In 2019 over 120 people took part in the walk, with 15 more showing real pedal power by taking part in the cycle challenge. However, for 2020 the Greenfingers team is hoping to far exceed these numbers.

In a year that has seen Primeur’s penetration of UK garden centres increase exponentially, the company has been busy working behind the scenes to develop its instore merchandising displays for the award-winning Eco Garden range. As the industry begins making preparations for the 2020 season, the company has confirmed that this new point of sale will be rolled out to four times more customers than in 2019 – an exciting way to start the new year.

 

Primeur’s Eco Garden merchandising display has been created to make it even easier for retailers to stock the popular Eco Garden range, including the recycled rubber garden borders and stepping stones – both of which have scooped awards from GIMA and Glee respectively.

 

With a footprint of just 0.8m2, the display unit comes fully stocked with £700 of stock dependent on the mixture of products, making this a highly cost-effective merchandising solution. What’s more the highly robust timber Primeur Eco Garden display also comes fully built, making it even easier for retailers to start selling these fast-moving ranges right away.

 

The future is looking bright for garden retail. According to AMA Research’s 2017 Garden Market Analysis Report the UK Garden Products market* is currently valued at £5.7billion and is expected to benefit from a 2% annual increase until 2023. With technology, sustainability, ethical living, and millennials driving this growth, the long-term picture offers a stark contrast to the doom and gloom that is shaping the UK high street.

 

One place where this thriving industry can be seen is Glee -the annual garden and outdoor living expo, held at the centrally located NEC each September. The 2019 event perfectly demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of suppliers from across the garden retail spectrum. Spanning eight carefully edited show sectors which became home to over 550 different brands, the 2019 show saw over 7,800 people visit the event, representing 40 countries. Of these visitors 41% were brand new visitors to Glee, with retail buyers with sole or joint purchasing responsibility increasing year-on-year, accounting for 75% of Glee’s total visitors. Of these, almost a quarter had a purchasing budget of over £1million, meaning order books were quick to fill and meaningful retail partnership conversation were the order of the day.