The evolution of Primeur enters a new chapter at Glee 2023

Evolution, the ‘gradual development of something’, has underpinned everything that Primeur has achieved since bursting onto the garden retail scene in 2019. Now, as the team prepares to exhibit at Glee 2023, the next stage in the company’s evolution is about to take place.

Next generation of material innovation

With sustainability wholly at its heart, it comes as no surprise that Glee 2023 will see Primeur add even more to its environmentally friendly product portfolio. Carefully curated to use only waste material – recycled rubber tyres – the multi-award-winning offering made up of Tierra Verde self-watering planters, Eco Way Stepping-Stones, EZ Borders and Easy Tile decking solutions, will welcome a new generation of material innovation. Offering new colour ways and further developing the conversation on why sustainable solutions are not just an earth-saving imperative but also a commercial necessity, these latest introductions will provide retailers with a wealth of new options for the new wave of ethical consumers.

Primeur at Glee 2023 – our aim

At Glee 2023, Primeur wants its customers to know that it is dedicated to:

• Bringing eco-friendly, recycled garden products to the market
• Supporting customers with dedicated account managers
• Showcasing innovation 
• Creating bespoke displays that work hard within the retail environment
• Providing product when it’s needed most with short-lead times in every season
• Building on the family values that underpin everything it does to create the ‘Primeur difference’

Don’t forget – Thursday 29^th June will be Floral Thursday, helping to raise much needed funds for the Greenfingers Charity. Avid supporters of the charity and the work it undertakes in children’s hospices gardens across the country, this year the team at Primeur will be donning their best floral apparel to support this special one-day initiative. Will you be joining them?

Introducing Primeur’s Eco-Story

Primeur is a company on a mission to make a big impact by bringing eco-friendly, unbreakable, and decorative garden products to the UK’s gardens.  Retailers love the eco-conscious product innovations from Primeur, where the team have to date been passionately pioneering recycled rubber tyre crumb, which is used to create their EZ Borders, Tierra Verde planters, Easy Tiles, and Eco-Way stepping-stones. These incredible collections help to protect our world’s valuable natural resources by reducing waste, preventing tyres from being otherwise sat in landfill sites where they take upwards of 80 years to decompose.  

Retailers will not believe the abundance of user benefits from the recycled rubber, which include:

• A range that is virtually indestructible, meaning fewer breakages whilst in transit or in-store thanks to clumsy customers and weather extremes.
• Products that will not rot, fade, or crack no matter how high or low the temperature gets.
• A collection that is both mildew and mould resistant.
• Each recycled rubber product offers a lightweight alternative to traditional materials, meaning it can be easily relocated around the home, garden, or instore and is accessible to every gardener from generation rent to the older homeowner.
• Plant-safe and free from harmful toxins.
• The planters, stepping-stones, borders, and decking are all easy and quick to install.
• Using recycled rubber results in a flexible design that ensures products, such as borders, fit the curves of beds and lawn edging.

The stepping-stones and borders have a softer finish to traditional stone, making them an excellent choice for a family garden.

Primeur has experienced exponential growth in the garden market since 2017. In just five years, the West Yorkshire-based business has seen a staggering growth with 82% YOY in the 2021/2022 season alone.

This increase in demand has meant that in addition to its head office and 50,000sq ft warehouse in Bingley, the business has recently invested in a new warehouse in nearby Skipton to provide extra capacity for the garden division.

Investing in this new site has resulted in upgrades that are needed to keep up with customer demand, especially following the popularity of gardening during the pandemic. It has vastly improved Primeur’s service model and ensures complete efficiency during peak season. Having extra storage space means the stock is always available for retailers during seasonal sales spikes and makes picking and logistics easier for Primeur’s staff.

One of Primeur’s greatest strengths is its people. Passionate, dedicated and personable, the family-run business has recently welcomed a new management team following an exciting MBO. With this new generation steering the ship, backed by a team that has been in-house for decades, the knowledge that the team can share is unrivalled.

The full Primeur ‘family’ will be out in force at Glee (Hall 20, stand B22-C23) to talk retailers and buyers through the complete 2024 offering, and to wax lyrical about the many benefits that recycled rubber tyre crumb provides for all products in the portfolio.

The Primeur Team, from left to right: Jenny Douthwaite, Sarah McLafferty and Amy Hart.

Jenny Douthwaite is the Managing Director, having spent 20 years in the business.  Jenny heads up a workforce of 77 dedicated and long-serving staff, with her role being to lead and inspire every one of them to provide exceptional service to the customers.

National Account Managers, Sarah McLafferty and Amy Hart work alongside Jenny in the Sales Team, and with a combination of over 50 years of experience between them at Primeur, you can be assured you are in capable hands.

Sarah helps drive product development and thrives on showing customers the benefits of the Primeur portfolio.  Her long service to the company and has seen the business evolve to keep up with both customers’ and gardeners’ expectations.

Amy works closely with the garden centre buyers to ensure they have the best product ranges to suit their customer needs, and to drive volume and growth.  

At Primeur, building strong relationships with buyers, sharing product knowledge and market expertise, with an unwavering belief that people are the beating heart of the business, is what sets it apart.

EZ Borders 

The Primeur EZ Border range is guaranteed to prove popular with gardeners looking for a quick fix that will transform the look of their garden in an instant. 

Retailers cannot afford to miss the bestselling Scallop Grey, Roman Stone Grey, and the 9cm Bricks Grey Borders which offer a lightweight alternative to heavy concrete edging.  The innovative use of the recycled rubber crumb creates flexible borders, making it simple for even the most novice gardeners to install them and create an attractive and defined flower bed or pathway which follows the curves as required.  Supplied with the spikes needed to complete the project, these borders are quick to install.  RRPs from £14.99.

Tierra Verde Planters

Primeur’s Tierra Verde planters are revolutionary in the marketplace as they are lightweight, unbreakable, and have all-weather durability.  The most popular Sonata collection offers customers a range of classic square planters in contemporary colourways of black/slate and silver/steel grey, making them perfectly suited to any garden setting.

Alongside the many durable features offered with this range, these popular planters also benefit from a self-watering system which includes a rubber plug in the base, making them suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. Recycled rubber brings many benefits that the retailer can convey to the customer to increase the average basket spend - it insulates plant roots, protecting them from extreme temperatures; recycled rubber planters won’t crack or fade and are frost and freeze resistant; plus, the planters come in a range of sizes to suit many gardening requirements and garden sizes.

Stepping-Stones

Creating non-slip pathways and in-store sales using Primeur’s Eco Way Stepping-Stone collection is easy with its best-selling Railroad Tie Grey, Cracked Log, and River Rock designs.  Engineered for all year-round usage, the award-winning Railroad Tie Stepping-Stones are mould and mildew resistant, and they also won’t fade, stain or rot.

All the recycled rubber stones in the Eco Way range offer a safe and practical pathway and are highly versatile offering customers a decorative solution when creating pathways, setting in lawns and gravel or flower borders.  They are also easy for gardeners to install, whilst the stones are virtually indestructible and will not crack whatever the weather.  The softer surface also makes them a great choice within a family garden in case of any trips or falls.

Another gardening season and another raft of exciting new product innovation from Primeur, pioneers of the recycled revolution.

Leading the charge this season is the all-new Mower Edge Border. Featuring a unique L-shaped design, the Mower Edge has been specifically designed to make mowing a breeze. The flat lower edge provides a ‘ledge’ for mower wheels to follow along for a crisp, clean cut every time, eliminating the need to use a strimmer to complete the job. 

Available in Earth and Grey colourways, Primeur’s Mower Edge was shortlisted for the Glee Landscape & Garden Building Award at the 2022 exhibition, with judges remarking on the ease of use, quick installation and material durability, making them essentially fool proof.

Like Primeur’s wider product portfolio, the Mower Edge Borders can be stocked as part of a fully curated offering, supported by Primeur’s ‘plug and play’ merchandising displays. Working alongside retailers the Primeur team can highlight bestsellers and product combinations that will best appeal to the customer demographic of each store.

The newness doesn’t stop there…..

The innovation never stops at Primeur, with the team consistently designing new product collections and range extensions to offer a product hierarchy that makes gardening more accessible no matter the budget, available space or gardening experience.

Latest introductions include the new steel grey square Citadelle planter from the Tierra Verde collection, and new 10cm and 15cm trough planters – perfect for windowsills, bathrooms and first grow-your-own projects. 

Over in the Easy Tile decking range, new introductions will include extra-large 45x45cm ‘Extreme’ Tiles and 45x45cm Cosmopolitan Decking tiles, plus edging and corners to fit the new extra-large sizes for a seamless finish.

Come and see us on stand B22-C23 at Glee to find out what's coming in 2024...more newness will be presented there.

Primeur’s trophy cabinet hasn’t stopped growing since it entered the garden retail market. The company’s multi-award-winning products have gone down a storm with both retailers and gardeners and it’s easy to see why.

What’s more, being recognised as winners in these impressive categories provides Primeur with a great opportunity to put its products firmly on the map when it comes to unbeatable product design.

• 2018 – GIMA Awards - Garden Landscaping winners: Eco Garden Roman Stone Border 
• 2018 – Glee New Product Awards – Best New Landscaping Product + Overall Best New Product winners: Medallion Stepping-Stone 
• 2019 – GIMA Awards - Decorative Pots & Planters + Sword of Excellence winners: Tierra Verde Planters 
• 2019 - Glee New Product Awards – Best New Growing Container + Best Eco Initiative Product winners: Tierra Verde Planters 
• 2020 – Glee New Product Awards – Best New Garden Landscaping (joint winners): Railroad Tie Stepping-Stone in grey 
• 2021 – Glee New Product Awards – Best New Garden Landscaping winners: Carolina Border 
• 2022 - GIMA Awards – Decorative Pots & Planters: Flamenco Planter 
• 2022 – GIMA Awards – Garden Landscaping, Sustainability Champion: Maryland Border

Primeur’s merchandising displays are specifically designed to help retailers maximise sales in-store.  Taking a tailored approach that meets a store’s individual needs, Primeur works with its customers to establish its best-sellers to ensure that the merchandising and stock holding is reflective of sales patterns. 

Each product is supported by eye-catching POS which highlights the USPs of recycled rubber with each stand optimised to be able to display multiple collections across three shelves. Each pallet display has been designed and configured to best suit the garden centre environment, allowing positioning against a wall, or as an island where you can maximise floor space by placing two back-to-back. They can also be placed next to complementary product categories, or dual sited for cross-selling to increase transaction value.

A new merchandising solution has been added for 2023 which offers a full pallet display so that one or two borders can be displayed in higher volumes. This will ensure that centres can stock their key lines in larger quantities so that customers can purchase what they need in one visit.

Avid supporters of Garden Re-Leaf Day and the Greenfingers Charity, this year saw the Primeur team support the newly introduced north walk, as well as holding a special Garden Re-Leaf Fundraising Day on Wednesday 22^nd March 2023. The grand total from the day was a staggering £5,200, with the support from a number of their suppliers, colleagues and a donation from Primeur, contributing to this incredible fundraising total.

The fun day included carnival type games and raffles with a selection of great prizes available. A smorgasbord of food and drink were available for the Primeur team to buy at lunch, including a delicious BBQ and a bake sale, helping fuel them for the highly anticipated treasure hunt!

Managing Director Jenny Douthwaite said "We are so grateful to all that took part in helping us raise this incredible total for Greenfingers!

"First place won a day’s holiday so you can imagine the competitiveness and seriousness of those taking part. Contributions from local businesses included generously donated prizes and money towards the cause. After a fabulous day, we were so pleased to confirm a fundraising total of £5200.”

The 2023 season may be firmly under way but Primeur’s promise to its customer remains unchanged.

These 10 “promises” are designed to offer retailers peace of mind, celebrate the Primeur difference and continue to set the benchmark for sustainable design and material management. 

1. To continue to offer unique garden and home products that deliver eco-friendly credentials both now and long into the future. 
2. Strive to minimise waste and introduce new working relationships with our suppliers and customers to ensure they are matching the same standards.
3. Continue to bring to market eco-innovations that inspire gardeners across the UK.
4. To work in partnership with our customers to curate product ranges and merchandising solutions to meet their consumer demands.
5. Continue to deliver the highest possible customer service levels; levels which have become synonymous with Primeur.  All customers will continue to be supported by Primeur’s National Account Managers, readily available five days a week for any orders and enquiries to help optimise sales.
6. Primeur products are designed to offer a long lifespan and this product guarantee and value for money will continue this year and every year to follow. Robustly made and virtually indestructible, this material benefit remains infinitely appealing to consumers.
7. 2023 will see Primeur continue to invest in its business structure, including a transparent pricing structure and a cost-effective delivery process, together working hard to limit cost increases.
8. Continued short lead times, with delivery in as little as five to seven working days. 
9. From factory to warehouse to store, Primeur will take great care of every single product to ensure that it always looks its best.  From dust protection to delivery in a carefully considered manner, every step of the product’s journey will ensure that stock arrives clean, undamaged, and with the necessary packaging so that it can be instantly merchandised in-store.  
10. Market-leading merchandising support to help optimise sales. All Primeur’s market-leading merchandising support has been designed to offer flexible stand configurations, supported with a variety of POS options to best suit each customer’s space and to draw the focus to the products, thereby helping to optimise sales. These ‘plug and play’ solutions allow easy implementation.