Gardening: Italian market picking up

The Italian market for garden and grounds maintenance machinery and equipment closed 2914 by finally signaling a reversal of the downward trend recorded since 2009 due to the financial and economic crisis when investments in hobbyist gardening and municipal greens maintenance plunged. According to data released by Comagarden, an member association of FederUnacoma, with the Morgan survey group, sales of garden machinery and equipment ended 2014 up by 7.6% over the previous year. In terms of units, the gain came to some 77,000 units, 1,088,505 items sold in 2014 compared to 1,011,529 in 2013. With the exception of a few products, growth was spread over the principle segments of the market, beginning with lawn tractors which took on a marginal decline in the fourth quarter but closed the year with a decisive 16% surge with 2,253 units moved. Double digit growth was also reported for brush cutters and mowers. Sales of the former rose 14.9% for a positive outcome of 30,943 units and the latter climbed 10.8%. Also strong among other products were sprayers, up 36.8%, ride-ons, ahead 16.2%, bio-mulchers, gaining 9.1%, and chainsaws moving up by 8%. Though the market setting was one of renewed dynamics, other types of machines ran counter to the trend. These were hedge trimmers, snow blowers, professional ride-on tractors and verge trimmers. The downturns were a slight 0.6% under 2013 for hedge trimmers, deeper for verge trimmers and professional ride-ons, 8.2% and 9.4%, and on down more for snow blowers, closely linked to the weather conditions, which fell by as many as 4,206 units sold in 2013 for a steep fall of 41.1%.