| 623 |
|---|
| orders in July across eight years |
If you plot our orders by month, the shape is the same every year. Quiet through January and February, a jump in March, a plateau through spring, a peak in July, then a slow decline into the holidays.
March is the budget
Most Canadian municipalities run a January fiscal year, but budgets are approved through February and purchase orders start moving in March. The March jump in our orders is the sound of that happening. The lesson for a parks manager is simple: a project quoted in January is ready to order the day the budget clears.
July is the install
Furniture gets ordered when a site is close to ready for it. Landscape contractors are at full capacity in summer, and furniture is one of the last things installed. July is the peak because July is when the most sites are ready.
What that means for lead time
An order placed in July competes with everyone else's July order. The same project ordered in April ships into a quieter shop and arrives before the contractor needs it. We would rather say this plainly than have a client discover it. The best time to order summer furniture is spring.
On site
