This growth occurred almost exclusively in the months of February to April, not least thanks to the forecast of good spring weather. The rest of the year ran contrary to this, with a downward trend for several months.
Sales growth was driven primarily by plants and garden products (+ 3.2 per cent), the core business of garden centres, but pushed down by a fall in the sales of pet products of over 2.4 per cent. Sector experts attribute this to the growing online trade in pet supplies.