MORE than 600 dealers descended on the National Motorcycle Museum for three days of presentations by Global Garden Products (GGP) this week. Two days were devoted to Mountfield and Stiga brands (with 200 dealers attending each day), the third day to the Atco brand. The theme of the conference was MORE, MORE, MORE and focussed on new profit opportunities for dealers.

GGP md Duncan Martin opened the conferences with an overview of the market. He said that unofficial data (“because there is no centrally collated sales figures from across all selling outlets”) suggested that the UK petrol walk-behind market was down by 2% in 2015 compared with last year, whilst garden tractors and ride-ons were up by 12%.  “At GGP UK,” he said, “we have had another year-on-year growth with turnover up to £43 million. Our petrol walk-behind sales were flat, which I suppose means we were ahead of the market, and our ride-ons sales were up 15%.

“The pattern across Europe is patchy. In France, petrol walk-behinds were up by 7.9% but ride-ons down by 4.4%. In Germany, walk-behinds up slightly by 0.5%, and ride-ons by 12%, so a very similar pattern to the UK.”

On the product front, GGP introduced a new range of premium walk-behind mowers, three in the Stiga Twin Clip range and three new Mountfield roller rotary variations (48-53cm) with Honda or Mountfield engines. The mowers are all manufactured with a new hybrid steel/aluminium chassis.

The other focus was on a new range of cordless mowers in the Freedom 48 range. “We recognise that consumers, and indeed dealers, have often dismissed cordless mowers as a poor relation to petrol models. Not anymore. These new mowers stand comparison in looks, feel and performance.”

GGP reinforced its commitment to selling products over the internet in partnership with its dealer network. “As always we aim to be open and transparent on the way we sell online, that is the only way forward,” said Duncan Martin.

Marketing manager Adam Godfrey said that figures suggested that consumers would spend over £60 billion online next year, and added, “Research tells us that 75% of the people who visit the Mountfield Online site are in the +55 age range, and that their priorities are first the product features, the reputation of the brand, the design – all ahead of the price”.

Lastly, Duncan Martin announced plans to trial a same-day order and delivery for products online. “Other retailers are setting the bar lower and lower when it comes to delivery times. Once, 3 to 7 days was acceptable, now next day becoming the norm – and we want to be in that league.  It will cost the consumer extra of course, but we believe there will be a demand”.  GGP are to trial same day delivery in selected areas next year.