UK watering market faces ongoing struggle

After the 2006 hosepipe ban, the UK's watering market fell by 18 per cent - a loss of more than £20m in one year. Since then, a quick recovery was impeded by the onset of the recession, which has kept growth in the country's gardening industry below three per cent since 2008. Consequently, the size of the UK watering market in 2011 remained nearly £20m lower than its historic peak of £126m, reached in 2004.

Although growth rates appeared to be gaining pace between 2009 and 2011, the last hosepipe ban - imposed across large parts of the country in spring 2012 - put a halt to this upward path. Watering value sales at the end of 2012 are expected to be around 12 per cent lower than 2011 levels.

Euromonitor garden analyst Melina Cordero said: "In the absence of a major uplift in wider economic conditions, the rate of recovery for the UK watering market is expected to be just as slow as that seen after 2006 with very little chance of returning to its historic high within the next five years."