More than just ice-flowers

What are the special features of the garden business in the Nordic countries? Of course it’s a challenge if you compare it to other countries in Europe. Our business is extremely volatile. During spring and the early summer months we achieve more than 100 per cent of our results. There is an extreme peak, and then it’s a very poor trading period because of the winter. Which are the strongest categories? We are a category killer for plants and garden equipment in Scandinavia. We don’t have so much interior decoration as you can find in Holland, for instance. So we are more focused on garden products, and especially on plants. What kind of plants do end consumers go for in the Nordic countries? Is it like in the rest of Europe? I think it’s more or less the same. The only difference, of course, is that you have to ask how they will stand the cold. But the good part of this is that a lot of plants die off every year, so you have to sell them again. But I guess that gardening in Scandinavia is not on the same level as in Germany, the UK or Holland. So there is more business to be done? Absolutely. I believe the garden market is also developing in line with the prosperity of the Scandinavian countries. We are seeing this increasingly over recent years, especially in Norway. Could you describe some of the differences between the markets? Maybe there are more similarities than differences. The market is stronger in Norway. In the middle you find Sweden and at the end you have Finland. I believe that this has a little bit to do with the level of interest, of course, but also with the economic health of these countries. How was last year for your company? It was very challenging. We had snow in Scandinavia for six months altogether, from January to April, and then again in November and December. Even though we did have a rise in sales, we had hoped to increase them a little bit more. Have you felt the impact of the crisis? Not really. That is maybe a good sign for this industry. It seems to be a little bit countercyclical. There was a lot of talk about “staycation” and that people were tending to stay at home, which could be one reason. But of course we have faced a drop in big-ticket items like barbecues and very expensive plants. How would you describe the position of the Plantasjen garden centres? We are a category killer. We have big garden centres. Our customer proposition is one-stop shopping when it comes to gardening. In Norway we are definitely the market…