Page 5 - LandscapeSA Issue 109

FEATURE

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

Landscape SA asked a few green industry associations to give their
views on the past couple of years, and their outlook for 2022.

SA Nursery Association (SANA) food, fuel and much more, gardening can The interruption in normal trading due to
The lockdown in 2020 created a huge easily be put aside as it is not a necessity COVID-19 provided the ideal situation to re-
challenge for our members, not just because for survival. Our Life is A Garden initiative create our annual garden centre evaluation,
they weren’t able to trade, but because the continues to promote gardening as a pastime and the new format will be announced
challenge of caring for stock in nurseries had and activity that contributes to a healthy and shortly. This will be the perfect tool for retail
to be addressed and growers had a five week active lifestyle. members to self-evaluate, benchmark and
break in their production schedule. observe improvements that can be made.
Looking at our association, we have had The revision of our evaluation will ensure
The uncertainty felt by all during lockdown major changes over the past two years. Our that this remains a valuable tool for retail
was replaced by surprise and gratitude as SANA property has been sold and future members.
our members experienced a phenomenal events will be hosted at hired venues.
trading season in spring and summer 2020. With lockdown regulations prohibiting We anticipate that our trading environment
Gardening had become a trend during large events, were weren’t able to host our will remain unpredictable for a period of time,
lockdown as consumers were stuck at autumn and spring trade fairs last year. The and planning will become more short-term
home and started to beautify their home recent regulations, relaxed to level 1, were based. With the world around us changing so
environments. This was a great boost for our welcomed by everyone and we immediately quickly, this might not be the worst thing, but
industry and lead to many new gardeners started with the planning of our trade fair on 2 we still need to change our traditional way of
being born. March 2022. We look forward to a successful, thinking and planning before this will be a
well-supported event. comfortable state of being.
Due to the break in production during April
and May, we did experience stock shortages 2020 and 2021 introduced us to digital As always, SANA is here to walk the road
in some product lines but this did not cause communication as all meetings and events with its members, keep them informed, act
major disruptions, as other products were were done via online platforms. These on their behalf and support them in order to
highlighted as prime sellers by retailers. have been found to be very suitable to keep our industry growing and flourishing.
host training workshops for our members,
Since this super season in 2020, trading has and we have decided to continue with Information supplied
normalised to an extent, although it has online workshops so that members from all by Gerdie Olivier,
become clear that planning, forecasting and regions can participate. As physical events Operations
tracking is almost impossible since traditional hopefully become the norm again, we Manager
buying patterns aren’t being followed by will be offering training on mixed
consumers. platforms, depending on the subject
matter or topic.
Lockdown came to our industry with its
sweet and sour. A new gardening market
was created which is amazing, but the
challenge going forward is to ensure that
these “newbies” continue with gardening. 20

Our economy was hit hard by COVID-19
and its effects. As consumers continue to
battle rising inflation, increased costs for

SA LANDSCAPERS INSTITUTE (SALI) the past few years and this has enabled all staff members more time to attend training
There was a significant negative effect on regions to grow their reserves. This practice sessions, and recordings were taken for those
the landscaping industry during Covid, but fortunately put them in a position to support who could not attend these sessions.
SALI distributed relevant information to its members, offer them financial assistance in
members on a regular basis. Nevertheless, several ways, and remain financially stable For 2022, SALI will continue with support,
the past year has been challenging and when during the pandemic. assistance and proactive service to its
the country moved to lockdown level 5 in members, aspects which are always high
March 2020, this harmed many businesses. Construction took a knock and smaller priorities. The organisation predicts a gradual
Despite this, membership figures and award landscaping companies could not operate upswing in the industry, and believes that
entry numbers still indicate resilience in the until lockdown levels opened. Customers Covid has demonstrated the need for
industry. started doing their own landscaping and belonging to an industry body, and the
gardening work and the fact that the significance thereof.
As members are aware, SALI is a non-profit industry was not seen as essential, was
organisation and regional and national devastating. Landscapers had to be flexible Information supplied by Corne Nothnagel,
committees have taken this seriously; they and innovative, servicing sites and contracts Operations Director, sALI Gauteng
have exercised financial prudence over where budgets were cut. Online training gave

Landscape SA • Issue 109 2021 3