French market at a standstill

Research by the trade association Promojardin shows that the volume of sales in the French garden market came to € 6.125 bn in 2008. This amounts to growth of 0.3 per cent on the previous year. The total sales achieved by this market in 2007 had still seen a rise of 3.4 per cent. A look at the French garden market over a five-year period shows sales growth of 8.4 per cent up to 2008. The French are a nation of gardeners. As data from Promojardin reveals, 90 per cent of French households busy themselves with this hobby in all its different manifestations right at their main place of residence: 59 per cent have a garden, 47 per cent a patio, 32 per cent a balcony and 50 per cent a windowsill with plants. What is more, 77 per cent of the gardens have a lawn, and in 38 per cent there is a corner set aside for growing vegetables. Last year’s gardening season was characterised by bad weather, which affected the progress of the individual product categories in different ways. When compared with the previous year, the greatest sales growth was recorded by outdoor plants (€ 1.128 bn) and consumer goods (€ 659 mio), which each recorded an increase of 2.5 per cent. Fencing and shade products (wood and synthetics) also achieved above-average growth of 2.2 per cent for a figure of € 398 mio. Gardening products fared better than the market as a whole: they managed a sales increase of 1.5 per cent to € 755 mio. What is more, sales of garden equipment were also above-average, with growth of 1.1 per cent to € 442 mio. At € 515 mio, indoor plants achieved the previous year’s level, while portable motorised tools just failed to reach the sales volume of the year before (-0.1 per cent to € 372 mio). The most extreme sales losses in 2008 were recorded by furniture and barbecues. Sales in this segment went down by 4.4 per cent to € 592 mio. The second-poorest result was achieved by hand tools, where sales of € 172 mio amounted to a drop of 2.3 per cent. This was followed by machines (€ 823 mio) and planters (€ 271 mio), which each recorded a drop of 1.5 per cent. There were also winners and losers among the different channels of distribution in 2008. The agricultural self-service stores recorded the highest rate of growth, with sales up 5.1 per cent to € 879 mio (2007: +2.7 per cent). They were followed by the garden centres, which succeeded in increasing their sales by 2.7 per cent to € 1.241 bn. The DIY stores were also able to expand their garden sales by 1.2 per cent to…