The domestic garden leisure market is currently estimated to be
valued at £520 million in 2008. It experienced high levels of
growth at the start of the decade, benefiting from high consumer
confidence, good weather in key trading periods, and media
coverage, creating interest in the garden as a living area.
However, spending on garden leisure products has slowed in recent
years due to a combination of factors including falling consumer
confidence in the face of the poor economy and successive cold,
wet spring and summer periods.
The domestic garden leisure market is currently estimated to be
valued at £520 million in 2008. It experienced high levels of
growth at the start of the decade, benefiting from high consumer
confidence, good weather in key trading periods, and media
coverage, creating interest in the garden as a living area.
However, spending on garden leisure products has slowed in recent
years due to a combination of factors including falling consumer
confidence in the face of the poor economy and successive cold,
wet spring and summer periods.
In the medium to long term, the garden leisure market is forecast
to see consistent growth. It has been predicted that 2009 will
have a long, hot summer and this has already seen sales boosted
over the spring. The climate in the UK is expected to become
warmer and dryer in the summers and milder, although wetter, in
the winter in the long term. This could see the barbecue season
expand and demand for garden leisure products increase.
Although the future is difficult to predict due to the market’s
reliance on good weather in an unpredictable climate, we expect to
see all sectors of the market grow in future years, with an
estimated market value of £571 million in 2011.
Garden leisure products are increasingly sourced and manufactured
abroad, particularly in the Far East and Eastern Europe, where
production costs are much lower than those in the UK. This has led
to low levels of manufacturing of garden leisure products in the
UK. Products are distributed through 6 main channels - DIY sheds,
garden centres, high street chains and department stores,
catalogue and mail order retailers and hardware stores and
independent DIY retailers.
