Lawn and Garden Retail Sales Down to $21.5 Billion, Study Says

The U.S. lawn and garden market will post retail sales of $21.5 billion in 2011, down from $22.7 billion in 2007, according to “Lawn and Garden Products and Services in the U.S.,” a report released in November by New York-based market research firm Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com.

Sales of power and manual equipment accounted for 51 percent of sales, with garden supplies edging out lawncare and landscape services for the remainder. National home improvement chains, including Lowe’s and Home Depot, accounted for 55 percent of that market, but those chains have lost market share to discounters and mass merchants in recent years, according to Packaged Facts.

The research firm said the lawn and garden market was linked closely to housing and employment trends and thus constrained in recent years. High energy prices and climate concerns also pressured the market, the report said.

The report identified “greener products” as one promising sector for future growth and the aging Boomers seeking professional lawncare and landscaping services as another, according to report publisher David Sprinkle. For example, consumers sought products for organic and home food gardening even as they resisted gas-powered equipment and synthetic fertilizers and insecticides, Packaged Facts reported.

“If the market is to resume healthy growth, it must develop new and sustainability-oriented selling propositions independent of housing expansion,” the research firm reported. “Otherwise, market plays are relegated to catering to a diminished pool of homeowners facing difficult times and increasingly unpredictable weather and seasonal patterns. ‘Green’ lawns and gardens, culminating in the ‘edible yard,’ thus represent both the greatest challenge to the status quo in the industry and its most compelling opportunity.”

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Lawn and Garden Retail Sales Down to $21.5 Billion, Study Says

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