The pond and water garden industry is enjoying a surge in sales, with water feature installations and maintenance services both increasing, retailers reported. Dry goods, livestock and almost anything pond or water feature-related is doing well, and industry experts expect the trend to continue into the spring of 2021.
There was a notable increase in pond installations last year, according to retailers, though foot traffic in pond stores also showed growth.
“Business has been in an uptick since 2020,” said David Gute, manager of Barracuda Watergardens, a water garden and pond store in Auburn, Calif. “Installs were up last year. The retail store also saw an uptick in traffic, too.”
Though other segments of the pet industry experienced dry goods shortages and problems with delivery in 2020, the pond industry was not as impacted by these trends, retailers reported.
“Early on, there were some suppliers that were experiencing some lag processing orders,” Gute said. “But I think that was just from the uptick in the demand coming unexpectedly.”
With more people staying home, they have had more time—and more disposable income—to invest in the pond hobby.
“We were up quite a bit last year, but I attribute that to COVID more than anything,” said Mike Lucas, owner of Garden Ponds and Aquariums Unlimited, a store in Moore, Okla….
