Wealth of opportunity at RHS Tatton show

THE RHS Tatton Flower Show, which opens today, is more than just a great day out – its big business too with more than 600 businesses trading at this year’s event.

This year’s show, which has themes of fun, fruit and future designs, sees the launch of a new garden category for ‘visionary gardens’ which focus on sustainable garden methods.

Meanwhile, a new The RHS British Young Garden Designer of the Year competition will be launched, with two young garden designers showcasing their design talents at the show.

Last year around 94,000 people visited the annual summer fixture which will run until Sunday afternoon, spending an average of £85 each. That’s a 13% increase on the previous year’s visitor numbers and organisers are hoping for an even better turnout this year, despite the weather.

According to tourist board Visit Chester and Cheshire, around 8% of visitors to the show do so as part of a short break to Cheshire, gross expenditure across Cheshire as a direct result of the show is estimated to be around £16.5m, rising to £22.6m across the whole region.

Many businesses use the show for hospitality, but also to raise general awareness with a target audience of affluence individuals, by sponsoring gardens for example.

But in tough times, some businesses that have sponsored gardens in the past have this year been forced to look again at the return on an investment which can run into tens of thousands of pounds.

As one past sponsor said: “The demographic suggests it should just be our sort of event, but there are still a huge amount of the unwashed there as well and people aren’t looking for our services when on a day out like that. Our existing clients loved it but the reality was that new business was tiny for the cost.”