Retail business consultant Ian Baldwin was born in England and has worked in the nursery industry since he was 16, holding a BSc in Horticulture and an MBA from England. He has lived in California since 1986 and is an American citizen.

For over 30 years Ian has consulted for the best L&G companies in North America and Europe on store-planning, merchandising, “retail detail”, team and business leadership and increasingly, financial success. Ian is a trained trainer and facilitator, has been an expert witness, a “Strategic Retreat” leader and a market analyst.

Ian feels that 2020 has been a how-to laboratory for garden retail with some traditional best-practices changing forever, so his presentation will include insights around:

• Productivity: Doing so much more with so much less - less labor, less hours, less hand-holding, less time on site by customers and so on; innovative thinking has created new ways of doing business.
• Profitability: How some garden retailers adapted their operations to increase bottom line AND make consumers happy – while others didn’t.
• Sustainability: Which of the “amazing numbers” this year are a “one-off” and which are sustainable meaning a permanent change in the way you do business?
• Community: How winning 2020 Garden Centers have recognized changes in consumer behavior and aligned their businesses with them and their local community.