Business Barometer June 2011

Water Garden News regularly surveys pond and water garden companies about their business climate and sales trends. Respondents are granted anonymity. These responses came from a June 2 survey.

Steady Business Up From 2010
A pond supply retailer in Brighton, Colorado
We’re pretty small so business is steady. We are on par, maybe slightly up, with 2010.

We’ve tried to advertise more with contractors and get them working with us. Mostly customers are coming in for food and fish. They are adding new fish, not just replacing lost ones.

Customers Still Call for Service
A pond and landscape installation and service provider in Stafford Springs, Connecticut
Business started slow this year because of the rain, but it’s picking up now. I’ve seen a small drop in calls compared to last year, but people keep spending and want the services done. They want to stay in their yards and enjoy them, especially with the higher gas prices.

Most of my business comes from word-of-mouth. I have a large network of people who also have large networks, so we constantly get new calls.

Because of weather delays, we have some pending jobs to finish that should take me into July. I haven’t had many pond installs. It’s more landscape design and installation and maintaining ponds.

Business Continues on Uptick
A full-service pond product retailer and installer in Orlando, Florida
Business was better in 2010 than in 2009, and we’re steady so far this year. We’re doing a lot of full-pond cleanouts.

I’ve got a lot of customers booking pond overhauls. Some want their existing ponds changed into pondless features for lower maintenance, or they want to rebuild their existing ponds.

People remain standoffish about new installs. We received a lot of leads from a recent show, and people want the features, but they hesitate to commit to a new build.

On the retail side, people are buying pondless features, fish food, ultraviolet bulbs and other maintenance items. We’ve replaced a lot of burnt-out pumps lately.

I can tell this year is going to be better than last year because of the calls I’m getting and the amount of work we’re getting. There is more money in our accounts now than a few months ago.

Company Enjoys Seasonal Boom
A pond retail and maintenance business in Atlanta, Georgia
We’re in-season, so we’re experiencing the seasonal boom. It’s about the same as last year.

The largest retail seller is free-standing medium-size garden fountains. Pond maintenance is doing well, and it’s up a bit from last year.
We added a billboard sign on the street to help people find us. We’re might do a direct mailing to landscape designers.

Retail Up, Maintenance Down
A pond retail and maintenance business in Cedar Park, Texas
Spring started early and everything bloomed, including business. Now it’s getting slow because of 100-degree weather rolling in, so we’re flat right now.

We are about 15 percent up from last year. Maintenance and installs are down about 20 percent this year. There are a lot of do-it-yourselfers.

Everyone lost their tropical and hardy waterlilies, so we had a hard time keeping up with demand. Smaller fountains are selling hand-over-fist. Customers still are price conscious, and it’s probably not going away.

We are relying more on digital mediums, such as email and facebook, for advertising. We increased our TV and radio presence and decreased the newspaper.

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Business Barometer June 2011

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