people: trading with
Trading with... Paul Smith, Brundle Gardener
This month, garden furniture manufacturer Brundle’s business manager Paul Smith tells us more about the company Can you give us a brief outline of your company and its products?
Brundle Gardener has been supplying garden centres for almost ten years. The company has grown steadily and has now carved out a reputation for offering products that are innovative, colourful and of the highest quality. We truly believe the garden is an extension of the home, and our range of vibrant products, from floral pattern deckchairs to fireballs, are testimony to that.
What is your company’s ethos?
Our ethos is to help provide inspiration in the garden. How do we achieve this? By ensuring our products are both eyecatching and high-quality, and by insisting on the attributes any good business should have, friendliness, flexibility and value for money.
Our parent company FH Brundle has been a privately-owned family business since 1889, and it prides itself on great service and credibility. On the gardening side, our strategy has been to bring colour to the garden, and with recent products, this has proved popular. We are delighted to have opened more than 100 new accounts in the last 12 months.
What is your route to market?
With a broad range of leisure and outdoor furniture products and warehouses located around the UK, we are perfectly placed to supply garden centres quickly from our own warehouse stock and promote a quick turnaround. Our flexible friendly approach meanwhile enables us to tailor a delivery service to meet requirements from bulk to drop ship. Trade shows are very important and after a successful last 12 months, we are delighted to be debuting at the Spoga+Gafa shows this year.
What are your best-selling products?
We have sold well across the range. The directors’ set and matching deck chairs, and fabulously hand-crafted dragon and forest fireballs, are examples of Brundle offering something different to garden centres. Helicopter seats continue to sell well. You will always get your browns, blacks, whites and greens, but we wanted to put a bit of colour in the garden with our brightly-coloured sheds offering a touch of the coast. Or our unique furniture for children, inspired by the shape of mushrooms.
What additional support do you offer garden centres?
As we carry stock, if you don’t have the space, then we do – and you can still benefit from these great products. We will be going into the Solex trade show still promoting our growing 2015
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ranges while also looking ahead at new products for the next 12 months.
What is your brand’s unique selling point?
We always want to be that little bit different and stock products that will be attractive to garden centres and make them take notice. Naturally, it has to be something centres will be interested in, but we want to think outside the box and offer bold and vibrant products.
Are you planning any new products over the next 12 months?
We are a fast-growing company who firmly believes that the lifeblood of further success comes from introducing fresh new products. The forthcoming trade shows, such as Solex, Glee and Gafa, are an ideal opportunity to launch new products for 2015 and 2016. We look forward to working with more and more garden centres to provide products that are not supplied by every wholesaler. w CONTACT
Paul Smith is the business manager at Brundle Gardener www.brundlegardener.co.uk Tel: 0131 335 5955
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25/06/2015 09:30