Changing Rooms

By John Stanley In the last edition of G.T.N. we featured an article on Cleeve Nursery and the changes taking place. Cleeve Nursery is a small plant focused nursery; the type of retailer who has a huge opportunity to expand their market as long as they make the appropriate changes. Alan, Felicity and the team needed to create ideas and solutions for their customers and to attract new customers. With consumers demanding we change the offer every four years, it�s not about capital injection, it�s about developing the facilities that you have already to maximise the opportunities. The key to success was to create �living rooms� from the traditional grid layout in the plant area. These rooms then needed to be merchandised in an inspiring way to increase the sales per square metre in the garden centre. To be successful, the team needed to buy into the changes and see the benefits of the new merchandising and display concepts. Having decided on a strategic layout that ensured consumers were exposed to 100% of products on offer, the team then got together to develop a merchandising system. Rather than a formal training session, we got involved and did the merchandising and reviewed as we progressed. We introduced themed ideas, integrated merchandise and introduced solutions for the consumer. Hopefully, the series of photographs will show the stages of development. Did it work? With rumours that similar businesses to Cleeve Nursery are down 8% over the last twelve months, Cleeve sales grew by 8% just by simply improving the layout; that is before we introduced the new merchandise strategy. In an ever changing marketplace, it is worth considering Tom Peters, the business guru�s comments of earlier this year �If you�re doing what you�re doing now in five years, your business will be dead�. Cleeve are changing and seeing the results. You have no choice, it�s time to change.