Optimism in the Netherlands

Gardening is very popular in the Netherlands, a fact that enabled the garden centres to enjoy healthy growth for many years. However, there has been a great deal of turbulence in recent years. For instance, Covatuin broke away from its parent company in 2000 and went independent as Intratuin. Then Europatuin became insolvent in late 2004. Names like Life & Garden and Tuinwereld came into existence, along with a reincarnation of Europatuin. Around a year and a half ago came the merging of Tuinspectrum and Vesatuin (Garden Retail Services) to form the Groenrijk trading format among other things, and Gardenmasters became insolvent in early 2006. Things have been peaceful since then, there is a feeling of optimism about the future and of general satisfaction about last season.Wilbert Witteman, chief executive of Garden Retail Services (GRS), foresees an appreciable growth of market share. “Garden centres are developing into retail centres, and the Groenrijk garden centres are becoming retailtainment centres. We create a variety of “realms”: the indoor realm, the water realm, the animal realm. We work with standard presentational styles where design is concerned, while previously every entrepreneur designed his own store.” He also appears satisfied with regard to his organisation’s merger, as are the majority of his members. He regards the DIY stores as the main competition. “The DIY stores are proving strong in the “light” retail area (Ed.: the cheapest possible décor lines), which is used to generate footfall. We concentrate on the “other” kind of shopping. We gear our concept primarily towards women, adapting our product assortment accordingly. We need to sell atmosphere, provide inspiration and convey know-how. We are not really garden centres any more, but rather centres of lifestyle for both indoors and out.”Peter Paul Kleinbussink of Life & Garden is another manager to show satisfaction with last season’s results, especially in the live plants category, his company’s core business. “Many garden centres have cut back on this segment, but it is an integral part of our trading concept which has as its motto ‘Enjoy life’. The range of products changes rapidly, more or less like at H&M, and provides inspiration in the same way as Ikea. What is more, we do a kind of pre-selection, to ensure that customers won’t find 40 different secateurs on the shelves.” Life & Garden, too, is primarily geared towards women customers, a major feature…