Garden supplies retailing - issued 2010

Industry overview

The main activities for businesses in this industry are the sale of garden supplies, including plants, seeds, soils, pots, potting mixtures, fertilisers, pest controls, garden tools, garden furniture and other garden products and accessories.

Many businesses in this industry also provide water tanks, hydroponics and landscaping supplies.

These benchmarks do not apply to hardware stores, large department stores or landscapers.

Performance benchmarks

These performance benchmarks have been developed using information on income tax returns and activity statements lodged for the 2007-08 income year.

The main expenses for these businesses are cost of goods, labour and rent.

The key benchmark ratio for this industry is the cost of goods sold to turnover.

	Annual turnover range
Benchmark ratio	Low $75,000 - $250,000	Medium $250,000 - $750,000	High More than $750,000
Cost of goods sold/turnover	39% - 55%	47% - 59%	49% - 61%
Labour*/turnover	1% - 15%	8% - 18%	12% - 20%
Rent*/turnover	5% - 9%	4% - 8%	2% - 6%

*Notes

• Labour - salary and wage payments, including contractor payments but excluding payments to associated parties, amounts exclude GST.
• Rent - for businesses that have rent expenses. Businesses with no rent expenses will generally have a higher profit or interest expenses to cover the return or cost of owning the premises.

Cash sales benchmarks

Cash sales benchmarks show the ratio of cash sales to total sales. Benchmarks are published for different turnover ranges and different average sales values.

The cash sales benchmarks developed for the 2008-09 income year have been withdrawn. For more information, refer to Small business benchmarks.

More information

For more information about small business benchmarks, refer to Small business benchmarks. For more information about your tax obligations as a small business operator, refer to: Record keeping for small business (NAT 3029) GST for small business (NAT 3014) Tax basics for small business (NAT 1908)