Back to school soon

In 15 days… Yes, it’s almost the start… Back to school soon, and we are going to leave for this 2nd semester after a vacation where, as usual, France has shut down!

Fortunately, the Olympic Games allowed us to see life in pink and forget about the rain!

Back to school soon

Quite a surprising year in every sense of the word. In this first part of the year, between January and June, we experienced the worst, so to speak. On the garden side, the rain came and we hadn’t experienced such wet weather for over 10 years. You understand, if you have been practicing this profession for more than a year… and more… The gardener is weather dependent. The principle is simple, if the weather is nice, I go to the garden and buy plants and equipment. If the weather is bad, I stay at home cursing and waiting for the nice days… But! I buy nothing, neither plant nor tool!

And this disrupted weather lasted the entire first semester, imagine the mental state of the gardeners… Depressed! Imagine the fishing of garden center managers… Underwater. And what’s more, to top it all off, we had elections which really divided the country. In short, a successful start to the year.

And suddenly, on July 26, it was the opening of the Olympic Games that everyone remembers, and which had the effect of transporting us into a happy interlude, for 3 weeks!

The emotional elevator is overheating!

Closure of garden centers

Still, at least for the garden, there are still after-effects. If you have read a little garden news, the garden center closures have continued, with more than ten points of sale lowering their curtains in spring 2024.The latest figures provided by Nielsen IQ GfK tell us that Lisas garden centers finished this first part of the championship (from January 1 to May 31) below -5 in volume and value. There’s nothing to rejoice about.And of course, the store closures, even if we felt it coming, did not resist such scores.For the figures, we will give you more details at the Salon du Végétal in Angers. Our conference for the release of the Garden Consumer Guide 2025 will take place on Tuesday September 10, 2024 in the Espace Serre in partnership with Verdir. We will have plenty of time to develop the subject.And we won’t be the only ones to wonder about the future of horticultural distribution. Several highlights are planned during this show to address the subject, and in particular with the Chlorosphere agency and its conductor Manuel Rucar.We are all looking for solutions for the future… It is time to act!

How to do it???

With a figure of -7, we can, as usual, take refuge behind the climate. If it’s sunny, it works, if it rains, it doesn’t work. Yes, maybe… but there are also other factors with changing mentalities, changing gardeners and purchasing habits, global warming, customers’ reduced wallets…In short, everyone will be able to form their own opinion, and the more avenues there are to explore, the more we will be able to understand the sauce that awaits us, and anticipate!For some time now, the distribution has been divided into different parts. We start with the opportunists. Whatever the type of business, they present the plant at a low price. They don’t necessarily have the knowledge or time to maintain it, but they offer expensive plants to our consumers looking for good opportunities. Opposite, there are the enthusiasts who accompany, follow the life of the plants, offer services… It requires margin to finance all of this. Difficult to do bothPlants are popular with stakeholders in our society, but still, it is not easy to be opportunistic and passionate at the same time. We would like to, but… There are financial and material constraints that make the association complicated!

Back to school soon… At the salon in Angers

There are obviously exceptions, illusions, tensions… Which arise from these situations.This is what we will try to explain during our conference planned for the release of our 4th Garden Consumer Guide which will take place on Tuesday September 10 at 4:45 p.m. in the area “Serre” at the “Salon du Végétal” in Angers. A moment of sharing before the big evening for participants! We will be able to discuss together about the future of this plant distribution and continue to wonder about the procedure to follow in the coming seasons.Perhaps we are at the beginning of a new era, the era of price versus the era of support and advice? Unless it is possible to reconcile the two? But by what margin? And with what perception for the consumer?Oh my gosh! This promises lively debates on all these questions!!!We’ll meet in Angers to talk about all this!In the meantime, have a good end of vacation to everyone. See you soon for new adventures!

Roland Motte… Gardener!