Greengoods Gains

by Danny Summers

Last week Tim Quebedeaux, The Group's Financial Management & Analysis Guru, released our Mid-Year Weekly Department Review Report.

As I dug into the numbers, I found some interesting stats on how our categories stack up against each other. If you are reporting in the WDR, you may have already done some of this yourself. If not, I hope this is of interest to you.

Into Positive Territory... Finally!
Let's begin by setting the stage for overall Spring performance results. We could easily describe the Spring of 2025 as... a cool, wet, and late spring season. And summer arrived pretty much as expected. And as often is the case, a number of regions saw rainy and cooler-than-normal key weekends close to Mother's Day weekend, the Holy Grail of the Garden Retailing season. Through most of the spring weeks, we saw small, single-digit sales deficits. It was only in late May and June weeks we began to see total sales moving into positive territory. Here's our WTD graph showing total sales each week. The Line is 2025 and Bars are 2024 (Line above the Bar is GOOD!)


Our Standard Greengoods Gain
Here's probably one of the most important observations I found. What we call our Standard Greengoods group (Annuals, Container Gardens, Herbs/Veggies, Perennials, Shrubs, and Trees) increased its percentage of sales in spring 2025 to 64.5% of total sales. This is the highest in recent years. But here's the more interesting comparison when I look back at 2025 compared to previous years:

2025: 64.5%   2024: 62.9%   2023: 62.5%   2022: 59.0%
2021: 58.0%   2020: 60.0%   2019: 61.0%

One change in 2025 that has helped to increase the 2025 Standard Greengoods group is what we call Outdoor Tropicals has been moved into our Annuals category, leaving our Tropical category to only represent Indoor Tropicals (Houseplants). Since Tropicals are not included in our Standard Greengoods, you might think that was the reason for the 2025 gain, but actually Tropicals is only down -0.7% and the Standard Greengoods group is up +1.6%. This percentage increase is good for comparing an individual Garden Center's performance. How does this compare to your Center's performance?

We know from our 21 years of The Group's Annual P&L Study, the higher percent of sales of Greengoods, the higher we can expect the margin dollars and profit to be. Seeing the increase above should be a positive indicator.

Let's dig into the Standard Greengoods categories to see what each category contributed to the Spring Season.

First, two of these biggest categories dominated as Top Category in regions. Annuals were the top category in 6 regions (Mid Atlantic, Midwest, MountainsWest, Northeast/NS, Ohio, and Southeast), and Shrubs were on top in the other four regions (Northwest/BC, SouthCentral, Southwest, and Gulfcoast).

Here are the stats on each of the six Standard Greengoods. Even though each graph is small, you can get a sense of sales each week. Below each graphic I include the total percent of sales for the spring, compared to previous recent springs.

I know the charts above are small, but at a glance, you can easily see the flow of sales by week. What do you see when you review these categories over the seven years of results?

As you look at Standard Greengoods overall and each year, I see a concentrated effort to focus on plants. We know the more plants you sell, the more of other supporting products ride along with them.

There are a few more charts to compare as we look at the categories above. Here's the Spring 2025 Transaction Counts. Again, the Line is 2025 and the Bars are 2024. In every chart above, the tallest bar (week) is the Week of May 5th, the week before Mother's Day. It just illustrates... to have the sales, you need the Customers (Transactions Count)!



I also have one more chart to share as we look at all the category percent-of-sales in the seven years above. The following is a chart showing the average Garden Center's sales, based on The Group's Annual P&L Study. It starts with a $2 million dollar sales Garden Center in 20024 and shows the average change each year since based on the average in the P&L Study. It shows the growth and the declines. As we focus on years 2019-2025, it is exciting to see whatever the sales, and see the charts above in each Greengoods category, the focus on plants remains consistent.



With the amount of data The Group continues to build, both in our Weekly Department Review (WDR) and the Annual P&L Study, it is easy to get lost in the mountain of numbers. Tim Quebedeaux is our guide in taking all of this in, refine and analyze it, and help you see what can help you the most.

Now is the perfect time for me to say THANK YOU to everyone who has participated in all of The Group's benchmarking efforts. You make this possible!

I am confident Tim will have some new revelations for us during his sharing at The Fall Event 2025. If you have not seen all his and others' scheduled sessions, check it out HERE.

And, watch for a BIG Announcement next week as we introduce you to a new exclusive Group Training Program that meets the future needs of your Garden Center Team.

Stay Tuned! 

Danny Summers
[email protected]
Tel: 678-909-7770
Cell: 678-761-7145

REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Tim Quebedeaux, Sid Raisch, John Kennedy, Jean Seawright, and of course Danny Summers are included in your retainer!