In brief

Coop opens more of its “Gartenparadiese” Mid March saw the Coop Bau + Hobby, a Swiss DIY retailer, bring into operation at 14 of its locations the company’s new garden centre concept under the name of “Gartenparadies”. The existing garden departments have been extended and newly designed as part of the cooperative agreement between the Coop and Dehner, a German garden centre operator. The concept affects not only shop design and presentation but also the product assortment, particularly indoor and outdoor plants, plus the advice provided by sales staff, who are inter alia being given further training by Dehner. Information provided by the company shows that the number of employees in the gardening part of the new garden “Paradiese” has been considerably increased. Less garden hardware From January to October last year the overall market for garden hardware in Germany contracted by 1.9 per cent in terms of value. In comparison the volume sold was 6.2 per cent down. These figures come from Gardena, a manufacturer, with reference to the GfK panel. Both volume and value were 7.4 per cent down in the DIY retail distributive channel. The development experienced by the garden centres was unusual: they forfeited 49.7 per cent of their sales in this product category, but still sold 0.7 per cent more in terms of total volume of items. Sales increased in only five product segments: pruning saws (13.8 per cent), chain saws (4.5 per cent), hand garden tools (3.0 per cent), hand mowers (2.8 per cent) and strimmers/brushcutters (1.2 per cent). The largest segment consisting of electric and petrol lawn mowers contracted by one per cent. More spent on flowers and plants in the German market An estimate from AMI GmbH based on data available up to September suggests that the market volume of flowers and ornamental plants in Germany grew by around one per cent to € 8.599 bn (at retail prices) in 2011. The average per capita spend rose by almost two euros to € 106. At the same time the market for house plants proved to be downward for the third time in succession. It achieved a volume of € 1.7 bn. Flowering house plants, which account for the greatest share at € 1.242 bn, are responsible for the decline. Green house plants remained stable at € 0.470 bn. The market for bedding and container plants also shrank: volume sales of € 1.934 bn put it almost three per cent below the previous year’s level. Shrinking of green market volume in Spain The Spanish market for garden care…