Gardening machinery declining on Italian market
The negative trend of rainfall has reduced the development of plants to result in a drop in demand on the market for machinery and equipment for the maintenance of greenery. The market for battery powered machines and robotic mowers shows a sharp gain in Italy as well as throughout Europe
The Italian market for gardening groundskeeping slipped back by 2% in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2016. The lack of rainfall virtually throughout the year hampered the growth of plant vegetation to apply the brakes on demand for machinery and equipment used for maintaining gardens and infrastructure, decorative and recreational green areas, sports fields and amatuer gardening. Data compiled by the Morgan statistics institute elaborated by the Comagarden manufacturers association signalled a 7.1% drop in mower sales, chainsaws off by 3.2% and trimmers falling by 4.9% plus decreases for brushcutters, hedge trimmers and biomulchers.
Reported on the positive side were robotic mowers, up 21.2%, pole pruning equipment moving ahead by 21.8%, cultivators gaining 5.5% and leaf blowers and vacuums plus 15.9%. These latter items are not associated with gardening alone but are generally used for cleaning up urban areas and various types of plants such as stadiums and arenas for sports and open-air events. Deducing on the basis of the nine months, the most recent quarter, July-September, is showing a more substantial trend at minus 7.1% compared to the overall average. This confirms the impact of the weather which weighed in more heavily over the summer months due to a substantial reduction in maintenance. In fact, in the third quarter mowing decreased by 23.7%, biomulching by 31.9% and clearing brush by 25.0% whereas chainsaws sales rose by 6.6%.
In spite of the decline in demand over the summer months, the outlook is for a market recovery toward the end of the year which could close down at minus 1% thanks to the 1,213,000 units sold, most of which mowers, estimated at 267,000 units, brushcutters, about 252,600 units, and nearly 339,000 chainsaws. Considering the technical features of products, there are expectations of a substantial increase in battery powered machinery and equipment due to the remarkable growth in the number of these items sold which run counter to the general trend of the sector. In fact, battery powered equipment soared by 59% from January through September. The trend of the Italian market fits into the picture of positive sales throughout Europe. According to EGMF data, sales around Europe rose 10%. Looking at the single countries on the basis of data reported by the associated manufacturers, unit sales in France gained by 4.3% and by 6% in Germany but dropped 3.8% in the United Kingdom in quantities and by 2.7% in value. In the United States sales slipped back by 3% but on a market which is a top global market for volume.
