In This Issue
"Open For Business: Lessons Learned from Lockdown and The First Week of Trading" webinar today at 5:00pm
Let’s spread a little RHS Chelsea cheer on #FloralFriday
Grow your sales with Evergreen Garden Care’s GYO best-sellers
Garden Centres back on the right track - UPDATED - New comment from Barton Grange, Newbank, Langlands and Green Pastures
Making garden centres friendly, safe and accessible again
Northern Ireland garden centres re-open with record sales - UPDATED
Bump Up Your Colour Pot Sales
Massive increase in demand for VegTrug
LifestyleGarden® thanks keyworkers with special giveaway
CSY launch Ecommerce Sites to help Garden Centres during the Covid-19 Panademic
The UK’s Infrastructure Capacity to Reprocess Post-Consumer Plastic Needs to Double by 2022 to Meet Plastic Packaging Tax Demands
A cut above on ground below
Gro-along Evergreen Garden Care launches virtual gardening series with David Domoney
Primeur continues to support retailers as the industry emerges from lockdown
GIMA welcomes government-backed trade credit insurance guarantee
GrowNation Secures Free Social Distancing Help and Advice for Garden Centres
Reopening your retail store: Step two – sanitation & portable hand washing/sanitisation stations
It’s a #FloralFriday thanks from Greenfingers Charity
Orderly queues form as garden centres in England re-open
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Smart Face Masks
Solex Exhibition – Cancelled
The Commercial Horticultural Association is supporting and promoting its existing British exhibitor group for GreenTech and preparing for the rescheduled show on 20-22 October
RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year to be judged during Virtual RHS Chelsea
Safe Trading Guidance for all garden centres published by HTA
The best of last week's
Green light for garden centres to re-open on Wednesday in England - UPDATED - Comment from James Barnes at HTA and Alan Titchmarsh MBE
St Peters staff in tears after council serves Prohibition Notice
Wales - Monday, England - Wednesday or June 1st?, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Getting ready for business - feedback from Coolings, Planters, The Gardens Group, Blue Diamond, Green Pastures, Fron Goch and more
“Stay Alert” - make sure your customers and staff have a safe and enjoyable garden centre experience
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
Greenhouses used in trial of "Covid-safe" dining
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Email trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700


Massive increase in demand for VegTrug

VegTrug have reported a massive increase in demand for their iconic product range during the Covid 19 crisis with the company taking very early decisions and employing a smart strategy to see them through.

 

Very early in the crisis (and several weeks before lockdown) they declared their Colchester premises an ‘isolation’ area with no visitors allowed and staff practising self distancing and increased hygiene throughout the premises. Several staff changed to working from home immediately and with systems the company had already invested in, they were able to trade throughout the period working remotely where necessary.

 

No staff were furloughed and customer demands were met with a few fundamental changes. The lead time was extended early on and trade stock availability was also limited so that they could ensure nobody was let down.

 

Joe Denham (CEO VegTrug) commented: “We have supported trade customers in the UK who stayed open during the crisis as far as we possibly could. Those online customers and garden centres who reacted early and worked with us to come up with creative solutions, quickly implementing safe ‘click and collect systems’ appreciated our support throughout the crisis. We had to think creatively in all areas of our business and trading relationships.

 

Demand from consumers has been overwhelming but our staff have managed to step up to the task and meet it head on. Our support staff have been working evenings and weekends and I could not be more proud of them.

 

What has been most interesting is that we have seen the business operating at maximum capacity. This has shown us where our shortcomings are and as a result we have made several staff responsibility changes and will be implementing an automated trade portal for our UK customers which will be launched within the next 10 days.

 

With trade exhibitions looking doubtful for 2020 we are currently in production with a number of video presentations which buyers should expect to receive over the coming weeks. Our new product line up for 2021 has never looked more exciting. Trading with VegTrug will be easier, smarter and more profitable than ever before.

 

Our most difficult problem was the closure of the business in America. Our warehouse and offices in Pennsylvania are still closed but we have managed to achieve our budgets with Amazon and QVC sales better than ever and shipments from stock we were holding in 3rd party out-of-State warehousing. It was imperative for us to keep our staff supported in America and we have managed to achieve that and continue to pay our bills over there!

 

We feel very lucky to have come through this crisis relatively unscathed when many businesses within the industry have struggled and may not survive. I believe it is a testament to the quality of our products and the service we give that has seen us through”.

 

Any customer wanting details of the VegTrug range for in store sales should contact Mark Crowley by email mark@vegtrug.com. Online customers should contact James Allan by email james@vegtrug.com

 

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