Responsible gardens need responsible people

When Spoga+Gafa enters the home straight in the Cologne exhibition halls, it's not over yet for decision-makers in the green sector. This year, the BHB once again hosted the Garden Summit in the Congress Centrum Nord. Around 150 participants responded to the call and heard the message that there is still a lot of potential in the garden trade.

René Haßfeld, CEO of Toom Baumarkt and BHB CFO, kicked off the event. He emphasised the emotional appeal of the green product ranges within the transformation, which also accounted for a considerable proportion of sales - “without the garden, we would not have come as far as we have,” he said. However, climate change requires changes in gardens and product ranges, which is precisely why the necessary restructuring offers the industry opportunities. Haßfeld therefore urged those present to push ahead with innovations: “Since Covid-19, we have criminally neglected innovation.” Customers are also becoming more demanding: consumers want sustainability, but this should not necessarily be reflected in the price. In terms of politics, Haßfeld called for an end to the “bureaucratisation mania” - the locational disadvantage in this country compared with other continents is clearly noticeable and is severely hampering business, the EU has simply lost its sense of pragmatism.

Sascha Kehrstephan, director of partnership at GfK/Nielsen IQ, presented figures from the garden business. He described the fluctuating movements of recent years as “a rollercoaster ride”, and the year to date in 2024 also fits in with this. From January to April 2024, the DIY sector performed particularly well. DIY stores increased their sales by 4.9 percent in these four months compared with the same period last year, while garden centres increased by 17.15 percent. Only the building materials trade continues to suffer. Here, the comparison with the previous year shows -11.6 percent. DIY and garden centre sales in the gardening segment grew by double digits, namely by 22.3 percent in DIY retail and by 21.9 percent in garden centres. The bad weather in May, on the other hand, caused a slump in sales in all sales channels, which representatives of all types of retail described as dramatic. The fact that this fact was not mentioned in the presentation…