Mother’s Day, which fell on March 27 in the UK this year, was the busiest ever for Double H, and also their main customers saw strong demand for indoor plants, says Andy Burton, Managing Director at this New Milton-based nursery. “The majority of the plants that we supply go through supermarket outlets but this year our e-commerce fulfillment volumes were also significantly increased with thousands of plants being sent directly to mums all over the country from our nursery.”
Andy Burton
According to Andy, the demand for houseplants has been growing steadily recently, and Mother’s Day was just another proof that increasingly more people are buying plants. Such growth can be seen especially with regard to British plants, and there are different explanations for that. “Firstly, they have a cost advantage over importing plants from the EU, which now incurs additional customs and phyto charges,” points out Andy. “Growing plants closer to the consumer reduces transport costs, which have increased significantly now. On top of that, consumers are continuing to make more environmentally conscious buying decisions, choosing plants that are grown closer to them, rather than opting from products flown in from the other side of the world.”
The super busy day wasn’t influenced by the good weather, as Andy says that they used to think that people bought fewer indoor plants when the weather was good. “However, that definitely doesn’t seem to have been true this year.”
Even though Andy and Double H are very happy with how things went this past Mother’s Day, challenges for the entire sector are still ever-present. “High inflation across all cost categories, including energy, transport, labor, and packaging,” remarks he. “Labor availability specifically continues to get more difficult, impacting our productivity and capacity.”
Yet, none of that has prevented Double H to have an absolutely baller Mother’s Day. And regardless of the many challenges, they are looking forward to the next big holidays. “Easter is just around the corner, and then we have a few bank holiday weekends, including the Queen’s Jubilee,” he says. “And I’m sure people will want to celebrate by decorating their homes and gardens with some extra plants.”
For more information:
Double H Nurseries
[email protected]
www.doubleh.co.uk
