Can it be October already? So last year`s season is behind us, we`ve all survived reasonably well, prospects are promising as I write, and we can look forward with some confidence to the future for the first time for three or four years.

As I step down as your president later this month, I am convinced that we can deal with the challenges ahead. The new, heavily financed entrants to the retail end have much yet to learn, not least that our industry`s not about price. It`s about value, and hospitality, and inspiration, and real knowledge. And it`s about partnership, with suppliers and retailers working closely together to get prices up, not in confrontation to drive them down.

That way, we shall all be able to go on funding the entrepreneurial innovation on which our industry has been built, and which has consistently kept ahead of the large food and DIY chains. These places are not attractive and comfortable shopping environments - garden retail outlets are.

If we can add to this strength some further improvements in our offer, we`ll keep ahead. We do need to polish up the charms and competence of our staff though, we need to create more inspirational plantareas, we need innovation in packaging and promotion (a principle which plant suppliers can learn more about from some of the dry good suppliers, perhaps) and we need to continue to develop our distinctive catering offer.

A very large number of members have already been helped in making these improvements by the Plant Retailing Workshops, Plantarea Masterclasses, and Catering Workshops and Conference. More help is available in the round of these starting shortly and is already being booked up rapidly by forward looking businesses.

The thirst for continued improvement by our members is also in evidence in the increasing number of businesses now wanting to get involved in the new style Business Improvement Schemes. With electronic data entry, processing and reporting giving better speed and accuracy from a larger number of contributors, as well as a range of specific topics and, now, six new catering groups, this programme will certainly help us keep ahead of the game.

So I am convinced, as I end my term as president, that the glass is more than half full and that there is a good future for suppliers and retailers. We do though need to make sure that we are keeping ahead of the game, and I am very pleased that HTA continues to offer you a range of tools to do this.