The whirlwind of activity in the gardens of the UK that had provided extraordinary levels of demand for manufacturers and suppliers of everything from fencing and decking, to garden furniture and log cabins over the pandemic years of 2020/2021 eventually subsided last year.

But that’s not to say that all business fell off a cliff – more like it returned to ‘normal’ levels.

“2021 had been a tremendous year and people were still fixated with that and really couldn’t see any end or reduction in demand,” said David Twigg, director at Severn Valley Woodworks, which sells timber garden products – predominantly via timber merchants –under its Hutton brand.

“At some point the music stopped and people grabbed chairs but they were sitting on a lot of stock and demand started to fall from around May last year,” he continued. “I think in reality demand had started to fall before that but customers were committed to stock on forward order and so they took it.”

“It was definitely going to be hard to beat the demand from the pandemic years but sales were still strong [in 2022],” said Leigh Barnes, retail sales manager at Jacksons Fencing.

And he added that, thanks to being able to expand much of its infrastructure during the last few years, Jacksons had been able to produce a lot more fencing to meet demand more quickly. “It also means we have replenished our stock of popular panels,” he said.

Power Sheds, which has enjoyed extremely strong growth since setting up in 2019 has also ridden the market slowdown since the pandemic boom.

“We have maintained growth due to the continuation of product diversification,” said Jack Sutcliffe, co-founder and director. “With new sizes, styles and models we have kept staff busy and built a solid foundation in preparation for rapid growth.”

Power Sheds now has the might of the BSW Group behind it, following the latter acquiring a stake in the Yorkshire-based shed and log cabin manufacturer last year.

“Due to the success and growth of the company in a short space of time we received a number of offers from private equity firms and trade buyers,” recalled Mr Sutcliffe.

“Offers ranged from buying the company in its entirety to buying shares. My co-founder Simon Hobson and I feel we have a long way to go with Power Sheds so we didn’t want to sell but were open to offers of investment to help us grow – although any investor would need to bring something else to the table aside from capital.”

BSW Group’s strong presence in the timber industry, further reinforced by it now being part of the Binderholz group, provided that ‘something else’, which was access to a reliable timber supply and the opportunity to expand into new global markets.

As an aside, Bayram Timber, which is also part of the BSW Group, was already supplying Power Sheds and will continue to do so, although it will not have a sole supply agreement, leaving the company free to work with other timber suppliers as well.

A year ago Power Sheds was predicting that 2022 would be a busy year for the shed industry but timber prices didn’t fall as much as had been thought, so customers who’d held off making purchases when prices were superhigh, didn’t flock to the door.

“It was more difficult to get a sale in 2022 than it was in 2021,” said Mr Sutcliffe. “I’m sure people did hold off from buying a shed [in 2020/2021] until prices came back down but we found that prices didn’t actually end up really reducing. Some companies reduced prices slightly over winter to keep staff busy but timber prices have not dropped to previous, pre-pandemic levels and it appears unlikely they ever will. We believe 2023 will be a ‘normal’, seasonal year, as it was before Covid. Early indications show this is the case and, although it was a quieter January, it is looking promising for the rest of the year.”

Simon Davison, head of commercial development at Zest, part of the P&A Group, agrees that the market settled back to prepandemic levels in 2022.

“Customers were clearly being influenced by the media focus on the challenges to the economy and this uncertainty, along with far more choice on what they could spend their discretionary income on, was very evident, particularly at the end of the season,” he said.

However, he added that the underlying demand is still there. “It’s been widely recognised that gardens are so important for our well-being and the trend of customers looking for opportunities to de-stress is still there. The garden is the ideal place to be closer to nature and we’re well positioned to satisfy this demand.”

Bestsellers for Zest in 2022 were its Miami Swing, its timber dining sets and its Lily Relax Adirondack range of seating. It also recorded high demand for planters and growyour- own (GYO) products.

“We have noticed that the GYO products that can also be used for flowers and that have a smaller footprint and are stepped or vertical have attracted an increased amount of attention,” said Mr Davison. “This reflects the need for products that fit into a range of smaller spaces and satisfy a number of needs, including easy access.”

For Jacksons Fencing, the angled slotted Jakpost fence post it launched at the end of April last year has been very well received.

“It solves a frustrating problem with tricky fence runs,” said Mr Barnes. “It allows a change of direction between 30-45O; an alternative to a corner post which only allows a 90O angle. It has allowed customers to use every inch of their garden and maximise space.”

Mr Barnes added that some of Jacksons’ new panels, the Urban and Roman topper panel, continued to grow in popularity last year, with the Urban becoming one of its bestselling fence panels.

For Hutton its range of robust sheds have sold well but it was garden seating in its various forms that took the top slot “for fairly obvious reasons – people just want to get out in their gardens and have something to sit on”. And Mr Twigg believes timber is now the most popular option.

“The interesting thing is that people want to do that but now in a more responsible way,” he said. “Consumers are more wary of buying plastic and materials with poor environmental credentials. I think there is a general belief that we all have to do something positive and buy products that are not only going to last but are also, literally, not going to cost the earth.”

Meanwhile, Power Sheds reports “a great first year” with the log cabin range it launched at the end of 2021, so much so that it is being extended to offer more sizes, including 28mm log cabins to supplement the 44mm range and bespoke units.

“We’re also continuing to develop new product ranges, including decking kits (both timber and composite), gazebos and pergolas,” said Mr Sutcliffe.

“We now have a huge range of products, with over 1,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) of sheds, summerhouses, bike sheds and potting sheds – and more to come. We have over 300 SKUs of log cabins, with bespoke options available and we have just launched a range of decking kits of various sizes up to 20x20ft.”

Zest launched new products for the 2023 season at Glee last year (held in June, rather than September for the first time in its history) and said that feedback had been “far beyond anything we have previously experienced”, said Mr Davison.

Its new garden bar and two stool set won product awards at both Glee and the SOLEX trade show and the company’s innovative pizza oven table received “a rapturous reception”, mainly due to its 360O access for fuelling, preparation and serving.

 Zest’s products for entertaining at home have been well received, which is probably a legacy from the lockdown years. Likewise, the surge in online shopping led to an early launch of Zest’s new keep safe parcel store, with drop down mechanism. Its launch was brought forward ahead of the 2023 season due to demand from the trade, said Mr Davison.

It’s fair to say that while manufacturers are optimistic about prospects for this year, they are also realistic.

“I think everybody is just being very cautious at the moment,” said Hutton’s David Twigg.

“But one of the benefits of having been in this industry for such a long time is that you have seen and experienced things before. When people start to get out in the warmer weather and cut the grass, they’ll see the fence needs fixing, the shed needs replacing and so the merry-go-round starts again.”

“As a population we face a lot of challenges this year, one being the cost of living crisis,” said Jacksons’ Leigh Barnes. “We know as a premium product manufacturer we are going to have to fight harder for every sale and convey our key USPs to potential customers on why investing in quality fencing and gates is always better in the long run.

“We recently showcased a new housing development which chose to use our timber fencing to secure each garden,” continued Mr Barnes. “It’s great to see housing developers – who don’t always get the best rap for quality – thinking about longevity, quality and sustainability. It also helps new homeowners avoid the cost of having to replace or repair fencing after only a few years. Garden fencing should always be factored into buying a home as it can be an expensive project, especially if you have a big garden.”

Over at Zest, they are looking forward to Easter providing the trigger for increased sales and, more importantly, the return of warm, sunny weather. It believes that outdoor entertaining will continue to be a big trend this year and it’s anticipating “a continued customer focus on sustainability and responsible sourcing, as well as growth in GYO.”

Zest has geared up by developing new machinery and packaging solutions and says it hopes to have more news on these for its dropship customers – a big growth area – later this year.

It has also invested upwards of £400,000 in product development facilities in its new Design.shed hub, as well as recruiting more staff.

“Design.shed has a product development suite, the latest CAD technology, a prototype build area, production studio and a marketing zone,” said Mr Davison. “The remit of the dedicated NPD team is to research trends and understand customer needs and design new products to meet customers’ requirements and develop key concepts such as an easy to access range and with a focus on sustainability.”

Investments have continued at Severn Valley Woodworks with the installation of a new computerised cross-cut saw, bringing the total to six. The company now also has six moulding lines and three pressure treatment plants and has “significant capacity to process and manufacture products from wood”.

The cost of energy has also sharpened the company’s focus on renewables and it is “revisiting” the idea of installing additional solar panels.

“We installed some several years ago and still have roof space that could take some more,” said Mr Twigg. Power Sheds has also continued to expand its workforce and says it will continue with “an aggressive recruitment strategy” over the next five years.

“We have retained our staff over the winter period,” said Mr Sutcliffe. “Many shed manufacturers let people go or put staff on fewer days, whereas we have cross-trained and skilled people across the company.”

 That and building up stocks has put Power Sheds in “a great position for 2023”, he said.

A new automated dipping system has been installed and has been a great success and the company has now placed an order for an automated log cabin notching machine to produce logs for log cabins at scale.

“That machine is being built to a specific design and is due to arrive in 2024,” said Mr Sutcliffe. “We will continue to innovate where possible in order to maximise production efficiency – there are always things in the pipeline.

“We are currently looking for a new log cabin production facility for 2024 and still have long term plans for other production facilities as our range of products grows. However, the short term goal is for us to export our products across Europe and this is something we are actively working towards.”

Mr Sutcliffe added that Power Sheds is set to launch a profile page for each of its trade customers on its website with the aim to drive even more traffic to their stores. “These pages will include details of their history and their show site where the Power range is displayed,” he said.

Zest has also ramped up its promotional efforts, both to its customers and its customers’ customers.

“We have begun offering customers the choice of how to purchase with a limited number of products available directly from ourselves,” said Mr Davison. “Importantly, it is providing us with valuable market intelligence in the sorts of products customers are interested in from our range, or would like to see in the future, and it also enables us the opportunity to safely trial new products before opening these up to our dropship partners and stockists.

“With a view to supporting our retail stockist garden centres and online retailers we have invested in an above the line brand campaign nationally, to raise awareness and drive consumers to their local garden centre stockists or online retailer,” continued Mr Davison. “Titles for the 2023 campaign across print and digital include, Good Housekeeping, Gardens Illustrated, Your Home, Ideal Home, Amateur Garden and Grow Your Own Magazine.”


HOW DOES YOUR GREENHOUSE GROW?

The RHS embarked on ambitious plans to realise its fifth garden – a 154-acre site in the former Worsley New Hall grounds, on the outskirts of Salford. White Cottage Greenhouses was commissioned to design, manufacture, and install two large mono-pitch lean-to glasshouses in the new Paradise Garden, designed by Tom Stuart-Smith. The garden was created within a heritage landscape and is the first RHS garden in the north-west of England’s climatic and ecological conditions.

White Cottage has been successfully manufacturing painted timber greenhouses for many years. Its philosophy has always been to build a genuine timber-framed greenhouse while minimising maintenance and decay risk.

Over the last five years, White Cottage has shifted entirely over to Accoya wood, so there was no other material choice for the Paradise Garden superstructures. The decision to use only Accoya wood was made because greenhouses are naturally warm; therefore, the wood used must be able to withstand higher temperatures.

With Accoya, excessive movement in tongue and groove boards is eliminated, meaning cracks in paint are far less likely to occur. There are also time savings in the joinery manufacturing process, since Accoya has few defects such as knots.

For the RHS glasshouses, Teknos ANTISTAIN AQUA 2901 primer was followed by two coats of AQUATOP 2600. All were applied using an air-booth and climate-controlled drying room at the White Cottage manufacturing site. The colour scheme is appropriate for the Victorian era, complementing existing buildings on the RHS grounds while promising to be low maintenance.