Knowing What's Possible

by Danny Summers

For Garden Center Owners, it is understandable to wonder and have these thoughts...

• "How are we doing compared to others?"
• "If sales are up (or down), is everyone else similar?"
• "How is our profit compared to others?"
• "Are we as efficient as we can be?"

All of these concerns are typical, but one of the most important questions is...

What is Possible? or How high is HIGH?

For most Garden Centers across the country, these questions or concerns are difficult to answer. They may have one or even a couple of peer Centers that they can talk to and compare notes. Odds are the amount of sharing is very limited and considerably light.

But that really doesn't have the depth of a larger number of performance comparisons to build benchmarking.

In contrast to this typical position average Garden Centers face, being in The Group is different.

At the deepest part of The Group's DNA is sharing. And by sharing, we mean REAL DETAILED SHARING.

Last month, during our GROUPtalk LIVE Session, Tim Quebedeaux shared the results of the just-released 2025 Annual P&L Study. This was the 22nd year of benchmarking in this Annual Study!

Whether you were with us for the presentation, or have watched the recorded session in The Group's WebSystem, you still don't know which Group Centers reached each level of awards. So, we will begin introducing you to our 2025 P&L Award Centers this week and will continue over the next couple of weeks.

Awards Announced Now and Plaques Coming Soon!
We have been announcing the award-level winners at this time of year, but waited as we have handed out plaques at The Fall Event. Based on your input after the 2025 Fall Event, we have decided to ship award plaques now, which will free up more time at The Fall Event for more discussion.

We will ask each Center to take a Team Photo with the plaque(s) and send Tim and me the photo. And, based on your input, this will give us more time during The Fall Event to really dig into more details and sharing!

So, this week, we begin with the High Achiever Awards. Here's Tim Quebdeaux's introduction:

Annual P&L Study for 2025 – High Achievers Group

"Each year for the last 22 years we have awarded plaques for two tiers of profitability. As this is an EBITDA or an Operating Profit & Loss Study, just breaking even is not the goal. Being below 5% is actually going in the wrong direction for your business.

We define our High Achievers group at 5% operating profit as doing just that – reaching a High Achievement. At 5% operating profit, you have enough to consider: Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. As well as having some left over to keep pushing your business to improve. The goal is not to tread water or stand still, but to keep up with the times. At 5% operating profit you can do that.

This year’s High Achievers group increased its profitability to 7.4%, a 0.2% increase over last year’s High Achievers group. So, congratulations to those 21 centers that have reached this level."  

Here's the 2025 High Achievers Award Centers

Remember, what you see above is an average of the High Achiever group. Their average profit was 7.4%. That means a good number were above that percentage, but yet under 10.0%, as that is the threshold for being a Best Practice Center (10% or above).

As we share details of the Best Practice Awards next week, we will see indications of how we can answer the questions we first considered earlier...

"What is Possible?" or "How high is HIGH?"

Whatever the average profit percentage of the Best Practice Centers, be sure to be thinking about how high are the very best of this group?

Knowing What's Possible can be answered by networking within The Group and, of course, at The Fall Event 2026!

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, John Kennedy, Seawright & Associates, and of course Danny Summers are included in your retainer!