Following on from last week, there has been some further positive retail news in the past couple of days which makes for some good reading in time for the Bank Holiday weekend.

A new study says that retail sales volumes grew in the year to August as summer weather brought shoppers out into stores.

The CBI quarterly Distributive Trades Survey of 131 businesses, of which 58 were retailers, showed the volume of sales grew modestly for the year to August. Sales had been expected to drop following last month’s fall.

Anna Leach, CBI head of economic analysis and surveys, said, "The summer weather has brought shoppers out onto the high street with retailers reporting that sales growth has risen, outdoing expectations, although firms do expect sales growth to ease next month."

And in terms of the gardening industry specifically, Hort Week wrote this week that garden centres and other garden retailers have reported a strong month as good weather continued.

They said, "A late summer heatwave has led to strong garden furniture, plants and BBQ sales."

All of which makes for some quite unexpected, upbeat news. On the whole expectations appear to have been confounded. 

You'll see in this newsletter though John Deere have announced their Q3 results which show a further fall in nett income for the manufacturer. Overall they say, equipment sales are forecast to fall by 10 per cent over the 12 months compared with last year. 

But still, like Toro and Argo last week, they are able to offer a positive take on their results with all of their businesses remaining profitable, with the Agriculture & Turf division reporting higher operating profit than last year.

So despite the doom-mongers there clearly are still consumers out there with money to spend on the right item, from the right retailer.

I spoke to a dealer/importer this week who confirmed this truism to me. He kept emphasising how it's the machine which is the star, more so than any sort of personality. As long as a dealer's staff are well trained and well versed in the capabilities of a given machine - and most importantly can relay its benefits to the customer, then sales will undoubtedly follow.

People aren't so much interested in how many new wangles have been attached to the hoojamaflip, offering 18.3% more combustion protocols per hectare squared. No, they wont to know how simple it is to use and how it fulfils their particular wants and needs.

And there is no retailer more well equipped to offer that exact service than the independent specialist dealer.

Let's hope this Bank Holiday weekend continues this current buoyant mood.