Fieldfare Gardenware, a business-to-business cataloguer of
gardening products, is feeling positive following its recent
overhaul.
Acquired by Tildenet-the company that also owns Agriframes, a
cataloguer of fruit cages, floral arches and other garden
accessories-three years ago, Fieldfare has been rebuilt from the
ground up.
“It was a challenging start,” says Andrew Downey,
Tildenet’s managing director. As the business had to date
survived without the use of computers, emails, or even faxes,
“we had to bring the company up to date with 21st-century
technology,” says Downey. In the last three years, the
business has transformed and now sees a 97 percent fulfilment
rate and three-day turnaround on all orders.
For the second year running, Fieldfare Gardenware has been
growing; the product range has increased by 15 percent, the
customer base expanded by 30 percent, and sales are up 40
percent, though the company would not disclose specifics.
It is also now extending its warehousing facilities.
“Currently we supply over 500 garden centres,” says
Downey. “And we are confident we can double this figure
within the year.”
A key part of Fieldfare’s offering to its garden centre
customers, is an own-branding service that allows even the
smaller garden centres to have their company name, address, logo,
and colours printed on the packaging, setting products apart from
other manufactured brands.
To make this service clearer and more user-friendly, the
Fieldfare Gardenware catalogue has had a complete makeover, and
is now structured as a buyer’s guide, with new sections for a
“green range” and a dedicated bird-food
section.
The biggest development has been the introduction of barcodes
alongside each product, which allows Fieldfare Gardenware’s
network of agents to scan products at centres giving instant
stock availability and order processing. The company invested
£15,000 to get a bespoke programme written and software
adapted for this. A new website is also in the pipeline.
Developed by the in-house marketing team, the site soft-launches
in July, ahead of a big push in September.
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