Pets are an important element

The takeover of the former Europatuin garden centres (cf. PET in Europe 3-4/2005) and their changeover to the Life & Garden system was followed by a change in the external appearance of the individual stores with the new logo. Along with a thorough reorganisation of the range, the main steps towards the new system have thus been completed successfully in the first twelve months of the group’s existence.Reorganisation of the inside of the stores has been in progress for a few months now. The core feature of the new store layout is a new routing system for customers. Previously the garden centres were set up along lines typical of the Dutch market: there were so-called fast routes, which led customers swiftly through the entire garden centre from front to back, with branches off to the individual sub-areas. The customer could disregard those areas that didn’t interest him to the left and right of the route. “But then many customers missed a lot of things,” managing director Peter-Paul Kleinbussink told PET in Europe, “that might have been of interest to them.” The new routing system has been designed in a manner similar to that of the Swedish Ikea furniture stores, with customers being guided along a path that snakes through the entire store. Peter-Paul Kleinbussink is confident that “The customer is thus shown everything that the garden centre has to offer.” Another new feature is the numerous small presentation areas distributed throughout the store displaying seasonal products . These include individual plant species and clothing as well as hand tools and food. By contrast, Peter-Paul Kleinbussink has banned the large-format departments with plant pots and terracotta goods. These ranges are now to be found with the individual plants, so as to draw the customer’s attention directly to them.A range of pet products displayed in their own department is an important element of the revamped Life & Garden concept too. “The pet department entices consumers into the store and tempts them into making purchases in other departments too,” continues the managing director. In most of the garden centres the department is situated at the end of the “cold” glasshouse, just before the transition to the warm decorative and indoor product areas, and “thanks to the pet department, many customers are encouraged to spend a while longer in the cold glasshouse and often return because they have seen something else of interest,” according to Kleinbussink. He says that the…