Slight recovery in France

The French industry association Promojardin has ascertained that the French garden market’s volume of trade in 2006 experienced growth of 0.6 per cent on the previous year to € 5.907 bn. The unreliable and chaotic weather led to varying results in the product categories surveyed, which were as a rule no better than poor or negative. Stagnant consumer purchasing power and competition with other segments (new technology, travel, etc) are also regarded by Promojardin as reasons for the lack of progress. If one looks at the French garden market over a period of five years, sales have increased by 11 per cent during that time, and by 23 per cent within ten years. Gardening is popular in France. Figures from Promojardin reveal that 89 per cent of French households busy themselves with the most varied kinds of gardening right on their own doorstep: 60 per cent have a garden, 43 per cent a patio, 32 per cent a balcony and 49 per cent a windowsill with pot plants. There is a lawn in 77 per cent of the gardens, and a vegetable patch in 38 per cent of them. The individual market segments developed in very different ways in 2006. The previous year’s winners, garden furniture and barbecues, again headed the field with sales up 5.2 per cent to € 624 mio. Sales of consumer non-durables saw an above-average increase of 5.1 per cent on the 2005 figure to € 652 mio. Garden equipment also recorded a positive result, with sales up 3.1 per cent to € 432 mio. Further increases were shown by portable motorised tools (+1.3 per cent) and outdoor plants (+1 per cent). The negative balance was headed by hand tools with a sales decline of 4.6 per cent to € 180 mio. Biochemical products were also less in demand (-2.8 per cent), as were planters (-2.0 per cent), machinery and indoor plants (-1.6 per cent each). There were also winners and losers among the different sales channels in 2006: the garden centres recorded the greatest sales growth of 2.7 per cent, followed by the DIY stores at 2.1 per cent, the channel that had led the field in the previous year. The sales achieved by the agricultural stores (+2.0 per cent) and the mail order business (+0.8 per cent) were also above-average. To be found on the losers’ side, on the other hand, were the seed merchants and florists, whose sales were 4.4 per cent down, followed by the motorised equipment dealers (-3.3 per cent) and the segment covering direct selling, weekly markets and builders’ merchants (-2.5 per cent). Top spot among the…