“The growth rate of the cordless garden appliances is over 50 percent”

From pruning shears to chainsaws, through to robotic lawnmowers or ride-on mowers – the specialised department “Garden and Lawn Care Appliances” of the Industrieverband Garten (IVG) e.V. (Industry Garden Association) unites all of the manufacturers of products that are needed for the care of a beautiful garden. The core themes of the specialised department are market development, technology, sales, consumer and environmental protection. We talked to George Brown, the department’s technical officer.

Mr Brown, the commodity group “Garden appliances and machines” has been recording an average growth rate of 1.8 percent in Germany since 2010. Especially cordless technologies and smart gardening solutions have been very popular with the customers over the past years. Which new products and current developments exist in these sections?

Brown: The battery technology has established itself among the garden appliances as an alternative to wired or motorised appliances. The growth rate in this segment is in the meantime over 50 percent. Cordless products are becoming increasingly more popular both among the hobby and professional users, because they are more convenient to handle and more environmental-friendly and yet still offer the same level of performance. Furthermore, there are meanwhile many additional areas of use such as a cordless sprayer for spraying pesticides. Moreover, many new innovations can be expected this year among the robot lawnmowers and in the irrigation sector. One approach here is for example smart systems that collect data such as soil moisture, light intensity and temperatures directly on-site to take automated decisions. In the case of this solution among others a desired soil moisture can be laid down and maintained by the irrigation system. This avoids wasted resources.

When considering garden and lawn care appliances one doesn’t necessarily think about environmental protection primarily. But you also occupy yourself with this theme intensely. Are there any positive developments here that you have observed recently?

Brown: That is not quite correct. One certainly thinks about environmental protection when considering garden and lawn care appliances. Our manufacturers always endeavour to develop appliances, the use of which have as little negative impact on the environment as possible. The best example here is the development of cordless appliances: Their use doesn’t cause any exhaust emissions and in comparison to motorised products they are much quieter. This brings clear advantages: Their emission-free technology is much kinder on the environment. Quieter appliances facilitate or enable working in noise-sensitive areas. This is a big gain for municipalities, horticulturists and landscapers, but also for the peaceful cohabitation in neighbourhoods. For these and other reasons our manufacturers are committed to cordless technologies and are constantly striving to achieve further improvements.

Safety in the garden is also an important theme for your specialised department. The IVG is currently cooperating with the market surveillance authorities on a nationwide project. Can you tell us something about this?

Brown: The market surveillance authorities in Germany always keep a close eye on garden appliances, since lawnmowers, hedge trimmers or chainsaws are among the more dangerous household appliances, because they are powerful machines. So the products that are brought out onto the market have to offer a very good level of safety. That is the claim of our members, who always set standards in terms of safety and work closely together with the market surveillance bodies to achieve this aim. Taking this as the starting position, it was only logical that the issue was recorded in a type of survey, which collects all the relevant regulations for all garden appliances and describes the safety level. Without doubt a time-consuming process, which however enables all parties involved to learn a great deal from each other. However, the consumer profits most from this project, because it contributes towards reinforcing the safety level and banning unsafe products from the market. Because we are observing the development with concern that an alarming number of unsafe appliances – such as cheap no-name products or products of exotic manufacturers – are finding their way onto the market via online shops.

Further information: ivg.org

The latest technology trends for the balcony, terrace and garden at a glance:

The theme islands “IVG Power Place Akku” and “Smart Gardening World” will be on board again at the coming spoga+gafa (01.-03.09.2019 in Cologne). Here the visitors can experience the latest products live on-site as well as exciting lectures on current developments, new products and relevant trade themes.