The top performer

When speaking about German home improvement stores in 2020, year of the coronavirus, market researcher Klaus Peter Teipel assigns most product groups in the garden segment to the "top performer" category. This is because, although sales in DIY stores increased overall by 13.7 per cent, the garden range was truly the star of the show. Sales in this category grew by 16.9 per cent in home improvement stores, stronger than any other segment in the sector (by comparison, sales of DIY ranges increased by 13.3 per cent, building materials were up by 16.2 per cent, and the extended range by 7.6 per cent).
With these figures, home improvement stores proved to be the best-performing in particular of all the garden distribution channels, because the overall German garden market grew by a "mere" 9.4 per cent. Another related factor here was that speciality garden centres did well, but not quite as well, increasing their sales by 7.1 per cent in 2020. One reason for this was that these outlets had to close in some federal states during the first corona­virus wave in March and April, while supermarkets were permitted to carry on selling their bedding and balcony plants.
Looking at the individual product groups, it is clear from the data that if Germans had to stay at home during a pandemic-blighted spring and summer, they intended to do up their gardens (and balconies or patios). Spending on barbecues increased by 15 per cent, garden furniture sales were up 16 per cent and garden equipment by 21 per cent (pools sold out, for example).

Growth rates in DIY stores were slightly higher: up 19 per cent for barbecues, an increase of 26 per cent for garden furniture and 28 per cent for garden equipment. This product group was plainly the top performer among home improvement merchandise categories, therefore, with other distribution forms only doing better in sales of outdoor plants.
What will happen in 2021? Teipel predicts that garden range sales will probably decline in Germany, by 2.7 per cent overall and by 2.5 per cent in home improvement stores. That still means, however, that the market as a whole will remain on a high. If the record year of 2020 is regarded as a significant outlier, 2021 will develop extremely positively compared with the preceding years…