Less garden hardware in Germany

From January to October last year the overall market for garden hardware in Germany contracted by 1.9 per cent in terms of value. In comparison the volume sold was 6.2 per cent down. These figures come from Gardena, a manufacturer, with reference to the GfK panel. Both volume and value were 7.4 per cent down in the DIY retail distributive channel. The development experienced by the garden centres was unusual: they forfeited 49.7 per cent of their sales in this product category, but still sold 0.7 per cent more in terms of total volume of items.Sales increased in only five product segments: pruning saws (13.8 per cent), chain saws (4.5 per cent), hand garden tools (3.0 per cent), hand mowers (2.8 per cent) and strimmers/brushcutters (1.2 per cent). The largest segment consisting of electric and petrol lawn mowers contracted by one per cent.