Garden pond: A market with a future

Nowhere in Europe is the desire for a pond to grace one’s garden as strong as it is in the UK. Ranging from sculptures of natural stone, bridges and fountains to elegantly trickling streams, creativity and the wealth of ideas on offer know no bounds there. And the British don’t seem to mind spending a bit of money to have a little piece of nature in their back gardens, although this magnanimity only applies to decorative products. “When it comes to fish food, every penny is quibbled over”, says the manager of a well-known food manufacturer. The British garden pond has to have fish too, and many pond enthusiasts in the UK are particularly partial to koi carp.
The majority of garden pond business in Holland is transacted via the garden centres.
The garden pond is also very popular in Germany, the second largest market in Europe, although far less effort and decoration is lavished on it than in the UK. Since pond owners in Germany are mostly among the higher earners, they likewise feel the urge as the years go by to make their garden oasis ever more attractive. The pond increasingly becomes a status symbol, comparable to the car.
Compared with other nationalities, German consumers stock up more on water care products to halt the undesirable propagation of algae. German garden pond enthusiasts also invest heavily in technology compared with other Europeans. And as in the UK, well over 70 per cent of garden ponds in Germany contain fish. After having been the undisputed number one in Germany for decades, the goldfish has been displaced increasingly from this spot by the koi in recent years.
Garden centre customers are inspired by splendid pond layouts in England. In the picture: a Wyevale garden centre.
Although the idea of a garden pond is just as popular in the Benelux countries, consumers there spend less on average than in the UK and Germany, according to industry insiders. The business in private label products, which are packaged in transparent film and meet with high demand in Holland above all, is booming accordingly. Garden centres are the main sales channel for garden pond products in Holland, unlike Belgium where speciality shops have a relatively strong market position.
The predilections of pond owners in the Benelux states differ only slightly from those in the UK or Germany. Nonetheless, it is striking that the koi has not yet succeeded in overcoming the supremacy of the goldfish in Holland.
Outlets offering cold water fish out of season, such as the…