RETAILING THROUGH IMPACT – Todays Garden Centre (American Publication)
Exploring revolutionary ways to retail keeps Trentham Garden Centre on the cutting edge..
An ocean separates them, but the challenges are the same. For garden centers in the U.K. and the U.S., large chains vying for consumers’ discretionary dollars means differentiating your business is essential for survival. Trentham Garden Centre in Stoke-On-Trent, England is not just surviving – it’s thriving.
Surrounded by beautifully restored 300- year-old Italian gardens, Trentham wows its visitors the moment they enter the door. The surrounding gardens feed the store’s flavor – a Tuscan feel created by a 30-foot-tall, arched structure that serves as a backdrop to a large water feature at the store’s entrance. Alan Roper, managing director for the Blue Diamond Group, which operates seven garden centers including flagship store Trentham, says he wanted to create impact. He succeeded.
The garden center, which opened three years ago, is part of the Trentham Shopping Village, a retail area that consists of a number of different specialty outlets. The area’s developers wanted a garden center there, and both the Blue Diamond Group and U.K. garden center chain Dobbies bid for the spot. Dobbies actually won and built its structure. But, according to Roper, the chain wanted exclusive product rights, insisting the other shops in the retail area not carry any of the items Dobbies planned to sell, including everything from greeting cards to food. In turn, the developers dropped Dobbies and gave the spot to the Blue Diamond Group, leaving them with the Dobbies building to work with.
“If I were to design the building, I would not design this,” says Roper. “It’s too big – too cavernous.” But, the Italian theme works well, and the arched structure succeeds at creating an intimate feel. Roper emphasizes, though, that the building is not the most important part of a garden center. “As long as it keeps you dry and warm in winter, the rest is irrelevant,” he says.
What is more important, he notes, is the atmosphere you create with the right music, lighting and furniture. “It’s the merchandising, the product, the service, the ambience you create in the building,” he says. “Whether it’s a big thing like this or a small box, it doesn’t matter.”
Maintaining Standards
Aside from being the mastermind behind Trentham’s design, Roper spends a lot of time maintaining high standards at all seven of the garden centers in the Blue Diamond Group. He monitors the numbers every week to make sure the stores aren’t missing any opportunities. He measures sales across all the centers, looking at specific product categories to find out which stores are missing the mark. If six of the seven stores are selling a lot of bulbs, for example, Roper will investigate why the other one isn’t. Oftentimes, he’ll find the merchandising isn’t quite right.
Roper makes product decisions, as well, which isn’t always easy. Recently he’s dropped suppliers he’s done considerable business with in the past, because the products they’re selling can be found in just about every garden center. “Why (would customers) bother coming to you if they can buy it elsewhere?” he says. “We source product outside the box.”
This dedication to selling unique products is part of the reason Roper isn’t concerned at all with competition.
“I think the way you have to look at it is, competition doesn’t exist,” he says. “What you do if you’re a garden center competing with another garden center is, you make yourself so different from them that they’re not competition anymore.”
Trentham focuses on mid- to up-market consumers, specifically women with children who make up the majority of the customers the store sees during weekdays. These consumers come to Trentham because it offers different product and a different feel, Roper says. They’re not interested in going to the chain garden center a mile up the road. And, Roper doesn’t believe he needs to entice these customers by offering discounts or a rewards program, either.
“I don’t believe in them,” he says. “If you deliver a product a consumer wants, you don’t need to give them some artificial incentive to buy it.”
That’s not to say Roper isn’t interested in finding out more about his customers, though. Trentham does collect addresses and sends a newsletter out to keep customers connected with the business outside of normal visits. Each of the seven locations has its own newsletter, and Trentham’s currently goes out to approximately 50,000 people.
The stores collect customer post codes, as well, and have a system that runs a report to find out where shoppers are coming from. “If we spot an area where the garden on a wet weekend and just plunk it on the patio,” he says. While Trentham does still sell smaller plants, they’ve begun to get creative with their sizes to add value. Roper says six packs, for example, have a perceived value. “You put something in a six pack, and it’s automatically perceived to be £2.99,” he says. “The trick is not to sell those same old sizes.” Trentham now offers four packs that offer slightly bigger plants, and they sell at a higher pricepoint. Herbaceous plants are now sold in 5-liter and 7-liter containers instead of 1- and 3-liter containers. “You get more money, it’s a better looking plant, and the people don’t have to wait,” says Roper. He doesn’t believe it’s necessary to carry an A to Z range of plants, either. Instead, he strives to make sure his garden centers have as much range as possible, but only if it’s seasonally significant. “Customers go in, they want a specific color, interest, quite large, and they want it now, so that’s how we retail,” he says. “We retail through impact.”
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