Why Benchmarking Is the Secret to Growing a Stronger Garden Centre

Running a garden centre isn’t just about selling beautiful plants or having the best cafe—it’s about growing a thriving, efficient, and competitive business. And just like plants need the right conditions to flourish, your business needs the right insights to grow.

That’s where benchmarking comes in.

Before you set goals or track your own Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), it’s important to understand your starting point-essentially “Where are you now.”

Benchmarking gives you the baseline you need to make smart decisions—and it’s something Pleydell Smithyman, the UK’s leading garden centre consultants, specialise in, helping you get right.

What Is Benchmarking, and Why Does It Matter?

Benchmarking is the process of comparing your business performance to internal targets or industry standards. Unlike standalone KPIs, which measure performance in isolation, benchmarking gives your data context.

For example, knowing your café’s sales are 15% of turnover is helpful—but knowing that top-performing garden centres average 24%-30% gives you real perspective and something to aim for.

Benchmarking helps you:

• Spot strengths and weaknesses across your business

• Set realistic, achievable growth targets

• Improve customer experience and operational efficiency

• Understand how you compare to the wider industry

Internal vs. Competitive Benchmarking

There are two main ways to benchmark your garden centre:

🌿 Internal Benchmarking

This involves comparing different parts of your own business—such as comparing turnover performance between one location against another if you have more than one site, or are part of a networking group. It’s cost-effective and great for identifying what’s working within your own team.  The downside is that you only know what you know, and other like for like businesses you are not aware of may be performing stronger.

🌱 Competitive Benchmarking

This compares your business to others in the industry. It can be hard to get reliable data on competitors—especially if you’re an independent—but this is where working with Pleydell Smithyman becomes invaluable. We have deep and up to date industry insight and access to anonymised, aggregated data across the garden centre sector.  With over 400 clients that we work with, we also understand different business motivations and business models so benchmarking is completed on a like for like basis.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Approaches

Benchmarking isn't just about the numbers.

Quantitative data includes:

• Sales per square metre

• Average transaction value

• Stock turn rates

• Loyalty scheme adoption

  
  

Qualitative data includes:

• Customer satisfaction feedback

• Staff engagement

• Observations from store visits or audits – such as layout, customer flow and promotional planning

  
  

The most effective benchmarking combines both. The best way to understand where you are now and what you need is to contact us at Pleydell Smithyman and we can discuss where you are, what you need and gives options how to move forward. 

Why Work With Pleydell Smithyman?

Benchmarking might sound straightforward, but it becomes truly powerful when it's informed by sector-specific expertise. That’s why so many garden centres across the UK turn to Pleydell Smithyman.

Our team combines commercial know-how, retail insight, and over 30 years of hands-on experience in garden centre operations, including award winning garden centre management . We don’t just deliver the numbers—we help you understand what the data means and how to use it.

Whether you're running a single site or managing a group of centres, Pleydell Smithyman can help you benchmark smarter, grow stronger, and stay ahead.

Ready to benchmark your garden centre with the best in the business?Get in touch with Pleydell Smithyman today and discover how data-driven insights can help your business bloom at https://www.pleydellsmithyman.co.uk/contact-1 or you can contact direct via 01952 433211or email psl@pleydellsmithyman.co.uk