Britain’s Bugs Boost Insecticide Sales

After a particularly strong start to the season, the garden care market has settled into more modest growth (+3.1% value Jan–June YoY). Last year, Easter fell into March whereas this year, Easter was in a rather dry and sunny April. A later Easter is linked to a shift away from interior projects and into gardening.

Garden centres have been the standout growth channel this year, achieving 7.2% garden care value growth YoY. This is unsurprising given the industry press reporting strong sales of houseplants in garden centres and this boost correlates with the strongest growth categories. Plant fertiliser (+11.1%) and growing media (+5.1%) both drive total market value gain.

Another mild winter and early heat wave in April has been conducive to growing bug populations. Consumers increasingly elect to deal with the rising number of flies directly and this has caused a +39.7% increase in flying insecticide value YTD. The trend is likely to continue into July, as people increasingly flock to social media to express outcry about "flying ant day".