Garden tools feature ergonomic designs: new lines offer ease for users

Discount Store News, Sept 5, 1994

NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT -- Ergonomics, redesigning a tool so it will be easier to use, has been around the U.S. lawn and garden industry as a concept for several years, ever since Sandvark imported a snow shovel with a bent handle to reduce bending and back strain.

After a season of dormancy, ergonomics appears to be sprouting again among U.S. toolmakers as they attempt to differentiate tools that fundamentally have remained the same for perhaps 150 years and give consumers an added-value reason to trade up to higher price points.

"Toolmakers are trying to design lighter, smaller tools that are more durable and easier to use," said Bruce Butterfield, director of research for the National Gardening Association, Burlington, Vt. Those include special lines for women, he added.

"One size doesn't fit all," he said.

In 1993, 31.9 million U.S. families bought garden tools, including long handled stick tools, hand tools, pruning tools, sprayers and spreaders, wheelbarrows and garden carts, the NGA found in its 1994 gardening survey. That compares with 30.2 million families in 1992. Garden carts have become a mass market staple over the past three years, and the industry sold an estimated 500,000 last year.

No doubt due of floods in '93, the number of households that bought watering equipment fell sharply to 27.3 million from 33.1 million in '92.

The NGA survey determined that total spending on L&G dipped to $22.4 billion in '93 from $22.8 billion the previous year.

The survey doesn't break out tool sales separately, but instead determines spending by category, such as lawn care, and lumps together spending for all tools, including power mowers, grass seed and fertilizer needed to carry out that activity.

But stick tool sales at wholesale totaled $300 million to $350 million last year, estimated Gabe Mihaly, president and chief executive officer of UnionTools. Cutting tools added about $150 million more, he estimated.

Market growth last year for stick tools was a modest 2% to 3%, Mihaly said. Unit volume increased perhaps 5% to 10%, he said, but real prices declined because of increased competition and better manufacturing efficiencies.

Retail margins start at 20% and range up to 50%, depending on the category and class of trade, he said.

New products on display at last month's Hardware Show suggest that ergonomic design has grown beyond bending the handle on snow shovels:

* Fiskars unveiled a new pistol grip pruner dubbed Power Lever Pro that features a compound lever action to reduce needed cutting force and a handle angled at 45 degrees from the blade to reduce wrist strain and cushioned handles. It will retail for about $36.

* At the opposite end of the price spectrum, Wallace, another Fiskars brand, introduced $1.59 trowels made of an especially lightweight composite material it calls Nyglass.

* Fiskars displayed a new Softouch garden spade with a bent steel shaft for added leverage, a cushion grip for more comfort and a handle that's angled forward for lessened wrist strain;

* Ames unveiled a Junior version of its Easy Roller garden cart that is rated at half the capacity of the standard model and built lower to the ground to make it easier for women to use.

* In addition, Ames introduced its Featherlite snow shovel line, made of lightweight plastic body and aluminum handles to reduce effort needed to shovel snow;

* Ames is marketing a snow sleigh, made by its Canadian subsidiary, Garant, a lightweight, two handled plastic scoop that can move large volumes of snow without lifting;

* True Temper expanded its Gard |N' Grip line of cushioned stick tools to include a new leaf rake;

* On its upscale shovel lines, UnionTools angled the head of the blade, so the foot pushes on a flat surface, rather than an angle, and has applied for a design patent.

A brand realignment within the industry is another hallmark of the garden tool category for the '94 season.

Wal-Mart, of course, now features its Better Homes Gardens private label in every category of L&G products except for chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers.

Ames continues to make tools for Wal-Mart, but under the Better Homes & Gardens label rather than its own brand. Wallace also continues to supply cutting tools for Wal-Mart, but also under the BH&G label.

Kmart expanded its Scotts licensed program, taking on stick tools that UnionTools produces and which displace its previous national brand. Kmart also expanded its K-Gro PL program from chemicals and fertilizers to hoses and hose fittings, cutting tools and even riding mowers produced by Murray.