We had a fellow plant supplier and LJN Member in our Nursery this week to select and collect their plants, to sell on again, to Landscapers and Designers. (Can't tell you their margin though).
They and we both agreed, that whilst Garden Designers will double on Trade prices, just like Garden Centres do, Landscapers always sell themselves short.
"Oh well I am doing them a favour buying your plants at Trade prices" is common. They, your customer could not buy Trade from us as we do not sell to the Public, so no, you are not doing them a favour. You are in fact losing money through it!
Paving, decking, walling and fencing has perhaps a 30% mark-up.
Plants have a 100% mark-up, when purchased from a Wholesale Nursery.
So some of industry understands this fact, but not all, yet...
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Thanks Nick,
Garden Centres/Retail Nurseries buy from Trade/Wholesale Nurseries like ourselves.
They mark-up as a minimum by 2.4, or double + VAT as a minimum.
Garden Designers do the same as Garden Centres.
Landscapers mark upon average by 50%, inc vat on plants, some less, so lose out on profit.
Interesting, as I try not to supply plants now because there's not the room for a decent mark-up. I tend to charge time instead, but I don't do huge projects where a mark-up is significant. I might buy £400-worth of plants or less, so charging three hours will make me more than I could mark them up before the client noticed they could buy at the same price. Of course, they don't factor in my time, cashflow etc., they just see £6.99 on the garden centre lable, and think I should be charging significantly less to collect it and invoice them.
My two local trade nurseries also have retail sides, so it's easy to compare, and they are probably only 20% different currently. Most other retail nurseries give me 10 or 15%. Rochfords is a bit too far from me to be ideal, I have to allow a good half-day to make a trip there, but even they are only about 30-40% maximum less than my local retail outlets. I'm excluding the Wyevales etc. here, just the local privately-owned garden centres. Rochfords are as cheap as I've ever seen, and 100% mark-up is totally unrealistic.
As a really good recent example, I needed 20 Lavender Hidcot. My local trade nursery were about £5 per plant inclusive, retail was about £7. That's only £40 to play with to cover my costs, let alone profit, and the client sees me charging them at full retail price. I'd rather they went and used their time, and I didn't get involved!
I guess you're talking about buying plants in orders worth many thousands, in which case there is a decent mark-up to be made? I certainly wish you were nearer to me! :-)
Paul,
You need to start looking around. Here's a catalogie for our local Trade nursery. Lavander Hidcote are £2.15 plus VAT. Double that then add VAT and you're offering them at £5.16, still a couple of quid cheaper than your retail outlet. http://www.manorfarmnurseries.com
Steve is absolutly right - money is being left on the table. The garden designers always snag this part of the job because they know they're going to make seriously easy money by sourcing and supplying plants. The trick is, of course, to do your planting plan using one nurseries catalogue or with a nursery who can get the rest of the stuff you need if they haven't got it (like Manor Farm will.)
BTW, like Steve, Manor Farm will only sell to the trade. These guys are trying to help us by doing this!
Dave
www.the-gardenmakers.co.uk
I would love it if I could get £2.15 for a Hidcote - nearer £1.90 for a 2/3L is where we tend to price - and we are often too expensive!
Mark up is a funny thing - as a nursery its not really our concern. As a landscaper it was different as it was a good source of income at 30% mark up.
Direct procurement, either small or large scale is a completely different kettle of fish and something for another discussion board I think.
Many ways to skin a cat.
i put on 10% , if i get the job planting . maybe plus collection / delivery time.
I double up when buying wholesale, however not everything I need is always available, so I often end up going to retail nurseries who only give 10% discount. I don't feel comfortable charging customers more for plants than they would pay themselves. If its one off planting scheme, then time, materials and plants can all be factored in, along with profit to the quote. Does anyone know of any good wholesale nurseries in the Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield area?
You could try G-scapes of Lichfield
http://www.g-scapes.co.uk/index.php/wholesale
they email us availability lists
Green Giant Gardens said:
Dave,
Great reply, thank you.
Our post was never about this supplier or that supplier.
It was about the principle of marking up correctly so not to devalue Horticulture.
To clarify, Landscapers buying from Garden Centres for a token 10-20% discount are not buying Trade. They are buying plants at already over inflated prices.
It's a bit like going to the corner shop for a loaf of bread, when you know that you can buy better and cheaper elsewhere!
Sure it's perhaps easier for day to day, panic management, but is it the best business decision?
Planting and plant sourcing is just like paving, walling, decking, mowing or leaf blowing, it is planned.
So many LJN dicussions revolve around which mower, which leaf blower or which paving slab.
So lets talk about margins.
With plants, from your local Wholesale Nursery you can double. Good for your business, and you will also be supporting UK Horticulture.
www.southwestlandscapecentre.co.uk
Dave Sewell said:
Well, that's all very nice if you have a trade outlet that offers those prices within a very local drive. I have no more local supplier than Rochfords who will do the sort of prices quoted here; they are a three-hour round trip away, so it's really only an option if I need an order in four-figures.
I don't do that amount of plant sales any more, mainly because there's no option to make a decent mark-up. I try to do one or two trips to Rochfords each year by combining several smaller orders in to one day's buying. I will use my two local trade outlets where I tend to charge an hourly rate to collect, as there's not enough scope for a markup, let alone profit.
Another example; I have a client who needs four really nice hanging baskets each year. I buy the very best from a local independant, and paid £40 per basket last year. Add in an hour's time to supply them. The client saw some very nice baskets in a friend's house, that cost £7 from a car boot sale. I now have a customer that I have a problem with, as they think I'm ripping them off. I've found that suggesting to them, nicely, that they buy their own plants, means they see me as unable to supply what they want from their gardener.
It's a catch-22 situation if there are no really cheap trade suppliers in an area.
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