Start Licensing’s Ian Downes checks out the buzz around garden centres with a visit to Squires in Godalming this week.
My retail roadshow continued this week. I swapped Waterstones Piccadilly for a branch of garden centre chain Squires in Godalming. In certain quarters such as gifts and greeting cards there is a bit of a buzz around garden centres. Suppliers are seeing garden centres as good routes to market for them and forgive the pun – growth opportunities.
Where Waterstones sells more than books, garden centres sell more than plants. They have become multi product retailers with ranges including toys, books, giftware, food, cards, pet accessories and apparel. Lots of garden centres also have cafés and restaurants making them destination stores for lots of consumers.
While I think there is reason to be optimistic when it comes to licensed products and garden centre distribution, a cautionary note is that Dobbies – one of the major operators in the sector – recently announced the closure of 17 of its branches in a restructuring plan.
I arrived at Squires in Godalming on a rainy Monday morning, perhaps not the best moment to visit a garden centre. This particular centre was in a state of transformation – building works are ongoing as part of an expansion plan while product ranges were being changed over. On the product side Christmas was arriving in-store and shelves were being filled. The changeover of stock and the timing around it is always difficult for retailers. Add to this ongoing building works and you have to feel for staff who are running things in-store. It is easy to forget how challenging it can be working in retail these days.
One point to note was that Squires, like a lot of retailers, was also promoting Halloween products including pumpkins naturally. On the licensing side, products of note included Halloween-themed picture books including Bluey. The book I saw was Bluey: Let’s Get Spooky – this is a magnet book which comes with magnets that work with the book and storyline. It was part of a display of other Halloween-themed books which I think were in the main non-licensed titles. This seems to be a theme in the Halloween sector generally, particularly in categories like confectionery where brand owners are focusing on their own brand developments overlaying these with Halloween designs rather than linking to licensed brands.
I know in other categories and retailers Halloween is still working as a licensed theme, but it is always worth noting how a seasonal opportunity is developing and evolving. In this case it seems that some manufacturers are content to run with a non-licensed Halloween.
Returning to Christmas at Squires. As noted the store was in a period of stock turnaround so its Christmas range wasn’t fully deployed yet, but in certain departments Christmas had arrived in full force. A core area for Squires is greeting cards and it had rolled out its Christmas card selection. A key part of this offer included a number of displays for RSPB cards from Otter House. These ranges were very impactful in-store and offered a broad selection of design choices. RSPB and Otter House have developed a great range with a mix of designs – they have also emphasised that the cards are 100% recyclable and plastic free. The cards are being sold under a banner saying ‘Celebrate a greener Christmas’. This is a great example of retailer, licensee and licensor working harder to offer ranges that are more environmentally friendly while also communicating this point clearly to consumers.
Paper House and Medici also had a strong presence with two FSDUs of Charity Christmas Cards. These ranges are sold to benefit a number of charities and it is a reminder that Charity Christmas Cards seem to be enduringly popular. It is also a reminder that charities are becoming more proactive at retail. None of the featured cards were obvious licensed ones, but I suspect some of the artwork used may be licensed from artists. Art licensing is often overlooked in the licensing, but in categories like greeting cards it plays a vital and active role.
Other Christmas products that were on display included calendars and diaries. Again these were prominently displayed. Licensed products were very much the dominant part of these ranges with an eclectic mix of brands including the RSPB, RHS, Kew, Emma Bridgewater and Beryl Cook. Squires shows a real commitment to the calendar and diaries category with product being featured around the store, emphasising how at this time of the year these products become ‘pick up’ items and impulse purchases.
Outside of the Christmas offerings, licensing featured elsewhere in-store in a range of categories. This includes children’s books where characters like Paddington, Hey Duggee and Peppa Pig were prominent. These characters are well established and are recognised by different generations of consumers. I hazard a guess many of the books are bought by older relatives for younger family members as ‘treats’. Squires also has a dedicated area for toys and games which includes a dedicated space for jigsaw puzzles. Here Gibsons is a significant supplier including licensed products such as Paddington.
As noted earlier, garden centres are multi product retailers and their product offerings include cookware. Here TV chef James Martin’s licensed range of bakeware had its own dedicated display. Another strong category is fragrances, candles and personal care. Licensing featured in this department with brands such as William Morris.
It will be interesting to see how Squires uses the new retail space it is developing. Squires certainly seems to be a garden centre group that has recognised licensed products can work for it, but equally it seems to be a retailer that knows its customer base well with buying decisions made in a focused way to reflect interests and buying needs.
Christmas has also started to arrive in other retailers. I noticed Poundland had its Chocolate Advent Calendars in stock. Rather like Halloween confectionery ‘known’ brands have become more active in this category in recent years. Brands like Kit Kat, Dairy Milk and Milky Bar all have a branded products these days. But Kinnerton in particular is still matching them stride for stride with its licensed selection which includes PAW Patrol, Peppa Pig and Barbie. There is no doubt that it is a far more competitive category these days, but it is good to see that licensing is still playing an active role in the category. It will be interesting to see how licensing fares in the Christmas ranges that other retailers are starting to role out at the moment.
Finally, it is always interesting to see what is going on in the world of partnerships and ‘collabs’ in the FMCG world. Often these partnerships aren’t specifically financially driven licences and are seemingly more about two brands working together to deliver an engaging idea to consumers by blending their brands. The brands work to mutual benefit. In this context falls the recently launched Oreo partnership with Coca-Cola.
The brands have collaborated to develop an Oreo flavoured Coca-Cola drink and Coca-Cola flavoured cookies. This is a great example of two supersized brands combining forces to disrupt their categories. It is built around the concept of ‘besties’ collaborating. A spokesperson for Oreo talked to this point: “The bestie bond forged between Oreo and Coca-Cola is a playful way to unite our fanbases and celebrate the power of connection and togetherness”.
I spotted the Oreo Coca-Cola drink in FSDUs in a couple of retailers, but haven’t seen the cookies yet. One of the motivations for these partnerships seems to be the fact that they deliver column inches in the press and generate a high level of social media engagement. In an age where it is difficult to reach consumers through traditional media means creative partnerships like this can be very effective ways of communicating and ‘cutting through’. It is always worth keeping an eye out for these partnerships. Not licensing in the conventional sense, but it is likely that these sort of collaborations will be a spark that could start other more conventional licensing discussions.
Ian Downes runs Start Licensing, an independent brand licensing agency. His X handle is @startlicensing and on Instagram he is @iandownesphotos – he would welcome your suggestions for what to look out for.
