For most garden centers, the sales from fertilizers, pesticides and bagged goods (mulch, stone, soils, etc.) generally run flat from year to year. And while 2009 was no exception, there were a minority of garden centers from across the country that saw these categories excel in an otherwise tough year.

“Many customers are coming in to the garden center to be outside and shop the plants,” says John Harrison, sales and marketing manager for the Espoma Company. “Sometimes they never make the trip inside, except to checkout. The ability to cross merchandise hardgoods with livegoods is critical to your success, now more than ever.” Harrison adds, “It’s unlikely a customer comes in and says, ‘I need plant food to go with my purchase.’ That can all change if you put it in front of them. They’re then more likely to pick it up on their own.”

Up, Up and Up
In each of the last three years, Russell’s Tree & Shrub Farm, East Amherst, N.Y., has experienced between a 5 to 10 percent increase in fertilizer, pesticide and bagged good sales. Russell’s Mark Ziemba says, “The company as a whole grew this year.” According to POS reports, the average ticket for indoor chemical sales at Russell’s rose from $22 in 2007 to $38 in 2008 to $58 in 2009. Total growth in that category over three years is an impressive 22 percent.

“We’ve done a couple different things in terms of marketing those types of products,” Ziemba says. “Lawn fertilizers have traditionally been pretty soft for us. Our mix is a little different from other garden centers. We have a wholesale-retail mix that counts for about 60 percent of sales now. We decided to market the mix by making it a deal if purchased with a given product.”

He also credits this sales climb to frequency and range in local newspaper inserts, which has doubled in recent years. “We’ve gotten pretty good at negotiating ad prices,” Ziemba says. This Russell’s manager makes it clear that you don’t have to have a huge store to have big sales.
“We have a small garden center, which gives us great product exposure because customers have to walk around key displays in order to get to the cashwraps.”

And recently, Russell’s rerouted how customers walk through their garden center. “We forced an entrance and exit,” Ziemba says. “Before we had three universal entry/exits. We actually eliminated one and made it exit only, which helped with exposure for point-of-sale type merchandise.”

For 2010, Ziemba is expecting another year of increases. “Last year everyone here thought I was crazy for adjusting our confirmations up and my confirmations for this year are also up,” he explains. “I’ve always used a two-thirds policy. My orders will increase two-thirds the growth from the previous year, and that’s to attribute to possible pricing inaccuracies. I don’t want to eat this stuff so I tend to be pretty conservative with growth confirmations.”

The Credit Reel
Continued growth is part of the business plan for Russell’s Tree & Shrub Farm. Other retailers were somewhat taken by surprise at such noteworthy sales increases in these relatively flat hardline categories at their own garden centers. “We credit it to the homeowners,” says Debbie Mounce from Tucson’s Harlow Gardens. Like most garden centers in 2009, Harlow Gardens also felt the positive effects from the staycation and most notably, the vegetable/container gardening boom.

Whether promoted by the staff or mixed within a display, tie-in sales have also been a big contributor to the success of these hardgoods for Harlow’s.
“Some of the fertilizers now come in bigger bags and weather-resistant packaging that can stand up and also hold up outside,” Mounce says. Her formula is simple: rose fertilizer with the roses, tomato food with the tomatoes.

Rick Hotchkiss from The Greenery Nursery in Turlock, Calif., is another garden center manager confident that last year was not a fluke. Hotchkiss credits much of the fertilizer, pesticide and soil success to the education The Greenery provides. “We have seminars and in them we talk about organic gardening, something that roughly four or five years ago made up about 20 percent of our hardgoods. Now organics takes up nearly 75 percent of the shelf.” These seminars get customers’ hands dirty and also make them aware of an organic gardening lifestyle. “We have attendees actually pot up an organic container garden with organic soils, organic plant food and even a biodegradable pot. After being educated, we were seeing more fertilizer going through the checkout.”