Vol. 7, Issue 2 | June 2015

2015 GCA Competition

By Gerdie Olivier

The end of February to the middle May is our Autumn trade period and traditionally mini-season in South Africa. Due to economic factors, trading has been quiet resulting in average sales statistics. As we move into winter, sales slow down considerably until early August when spring arrives.

Our GCA Competition 2015 has been completed and results recently announced at the Grading Awards dinner held in April and members received their certificates for achieving bronze, silver, gold or platinum grading in the competition. Results were very positive and garden centres achieved good grading overall. The night created a lot of excitement for our top awards handed out a month later.

The top GCA awards – regional, departmental and top winners – were announced at our annual winter convention held at the end of May. Garden Centre of the Year 2015 was won by Plant Paradise Garden Centre based in Pretoria; this is the 6th time that they have walked away with this prestigious award and the Jimie Malan Trophy. Home Store of the Year 2015 was awarded to Builders Warehouse Port Elizabeth for the 9th year.


	Plant Paradise Garden Centre

Our ongoing consumer marketing campaign, Life is a Garden, is now in its sixth year and the administration of this project was handed over to a new marketing company in March. The campaign is focussed around four main themes that are updated on a monthly basis: “what to do in the garden this month’, ‘kids activity’, ‘edible gardening’ and ‘Indoor plant of the month’. This message is communicated through our online strategy that is focussed on social media. We have an interactive Facebook page www.facebook.com/lifeisagardensa, with our website www.lifeisagarden.co.za remaining the central information portal. To enhance our campaign and give exposure to a wide spectrum of consumers, regular articles are published in print media.

SANA continues to act as an information portal for its members by and keeping them informed and up to date with industry related news SANA’s relevance is very important to its members.

Gerdie Olivier
South African Nursery Association