Susan Fairley has been appointed to the new role of Trade Federation Manager across Gardenex, PetQuip and the Commercial Horticultural Association (CHA) as we say goodbye to Pat Flynn at PetQuip and CHA, who is retiring at the end of this month.

Many in our industry sectors will already know Susan: she has worked in the garden and horticulture, pet, home and gift sectors for over 20 years, having been part of the team responsible for the marketing of Glee, Spring Fair and Autumn Fair through a large part of her career. She has additional experience in the automotive, transport and energy sectors, as well as understanding supplying and importing / exporting during her time at White Pebble, a distributor for North American companies launching into the UK and other European markets.

Susan has good contacts within the gardening, horticulture and pet sectors and has excellent experience of multi-channel campaign creation, programme planning, organisation and execution, as well as team leadership and stakeholder engagement, bringing to her new role multi-faceted skills alongside her creative marketing background.

She has a long-held enthusiasm for both the people and products in the garden and pet sectors, which continues in the rest of her life, as a keen garden, vegetable patch and dog owner.

“I’m looking forward to making new contacts and renewing connections with suppliers at gafa+spoga, Glee and at Four Oaks and to taking an active role in organising the prestigious PetQuip Awards and Dinner at the PATS exhibition in Telford this Autumn,” says Susan. Adds Amanda Sizer Barrett, Director General of the Federation: “Susan has always been a pleasure to work alongside and our team is looking forward to her bringing her industry knowledge, business experience and marketing skills to her role."

Susan joins us as Pat Flynn, Trade Association Manager at PetQuip and CHA, has decided to take her retirement. We are very grateful for Pat’s enthusiasm and valuable contribution to the Federation over many years. Pat will be much missed by us all but the lure of foreign travel and exploring different countries with her retired husband, Paul, was too strong a pull for her!

Susan will be having a handover with Pat and other team members this month. Member companies and other industry contacts will be able to contact Susan on susan@gardenex.com, susan@petquip.com or susan@cha-hort.com from 30th May.