"THE CURRENT STATE OF BONSAI RETAILING IN THE UK"

In retailing terms the selling of Bonsai trees to the general public in the UK is in its infancy.

We have to look closely at how Bonsai are procured and sold in order to substantiate this statement, as I have no doubt that many of you are wondering why the sale of Bonsai trees might be presented in such enigmatic terms.

If you wander down to your local nursery or down your local high street or into your big city mall you are very hard pushed to find any Bonsai for sale other than the classic Elm or Serissa with a rock glued next to it in a blue glazed pot. Of course we have all seen exceptions and I know of an indoor Bonsai shop in a huge mall which sells quality indoor Bonsai which we would all be proud to display in our houses. And yes we could probably locate a traditional nursery which has a stand selling Bonsai products and a few token indoor Bonsai as well. However, these examples are by exception and they do not create a market nor are they the norm. The norm is poor quality indoor Bonsai displayed on a stand in a draughty part of a DIY store and a few dedicated Bonsai nurseries scattered around the UK, some of which are no more than the back gardens of enthusiasts. The exceptions though, that is dedicated Bonsai nurseries, are invariably run by professionals and are of a very high quality with a wide range of stock and helpful staff. They are the exceptions though and not large in number.

So if the sales outlets are sporadic in terms of numbers, geographical coverage and quality then the procurement process these outlets follow is even more bizarre. Most Bonsai retailers proclaim that they purchase their trees direct from Japan, when in reality they are invariably either bought from places like Korea, Holland or simply from other Bonsai retailers around the UK at wholesale prices. So don't always believe the imported directly from Japan label as it might not always be true. You can understand though why retailers would want to choose Dutch wholesale merchants over Japanese as there is no six month quarantine period, you can nip across the North Sea to view and chose the Bonsai you want, delivery is regular and the prices are competitive.

So we have a hap hazard geographical distribution of outlets of various levels of quality, an inconsistent purchasing process and just to finish it off a pricing system which defies all the logic of retailing. What do I mean? Well if you take a standard outdoor Bonsai, say a nice Chinese Juniper with a Shari and Jin and nice branch ramification and positioning with decent trunk girth, you could see prices range from £150 to £1,500. I have seen this variation on a number of occasions even when there is no discernable difference between the trees offered for sale. So in retailing parlance there is no standard monetary margin between wholesale and retail. Now you may well say that the price is decided by the visual beauty of the Bonsai and the fact that no two Bonsai are the same means the quality can vary as dramatically as the price. Thats fine and in reality no two Bonsai are the same, the learning point here though is that if you are going to re-mortgage your house to buy a Bonsai be sure as to its quality before writing the four figure cheque.

So what about the future of retailing? This web site in itself is part of the future. Although it can never offer the range of stock seen in quality nurseries, at the very least it can be easily accessed by enthusiasts anywhere. Until the quality outlets are more accessible then both the web and well known shop chains extending thier product range will be the immediate future. The latter option could be a key move in making Bonsai more popular, with DIY stores and national chains of nurseries addressing the gap in the market and doing a much better job at selling Bonsai. One supermarket I went into recently created a stand for indoor Bonsai  which looked impressive at first, but clearly no-one had told them how to look after the trees so within 2 weeks they were half dead and half price. The stand was dismantled and the initiative was clearly abandoned.

The British are the keenest gardeners in Europe and we have a great climate for many species of Bonsai so the market is there and ready made. What we need is a concerted effort by a national body to take on the distribution and retailing of Bonsai. They need to embark on it with a professional Bonsai enthusiast to guide them and with a desire to cover both indoor and outdoor Bonsai. Given the right conditions I am confident that the dormant passion for Bonsai and the hobby itself will be awakened across the UK with gardeners keen to add a Bonsai or three to the millions of gardens we all love to nurture and show off.

Article written by Adrian Spencer - Living Bonsai