Gardenex staged another of its highly successful ’Meet the International Buyers’ events at its headquarters in Brasted, Kent, and the early indications are that it will result in new export orders for many of the 20 British suppliers that attended. 

Other UK companies could also benefit from the event, as their products attracted interest from the buyers from Dubai, Norway and Sweden during the Gardenex-organised tour of garden retail outlets prior to the main business meetings.

The Norwegian online retailer buyer, Henrik Haukelidsæter of Tilboligen, who held one-to-one meetings with several UK suppliers, stated that he expected to do business with more than half of the companies he had met.

A similar reaction came from Jean-Charles Hameau from Green Chapter, a Dubai online garden company and distributor who stated that he was expecting to do business with several of the companies that he met during a very full day of meetings.  

As an added bonus, Gardenex managed to arrange a last minute meeting with a supplier whose products had attracted the buyer during the retail tour the previous afternoon, and the federation has also provided links to three other suppliers whose products were identified of interest to the Dubai buyer.

The Swedish online retailer and wholesaler buyer, Lena Ljungquist from WEXTHUSET / Honey Pot Garden AB, reported that she had found the day extremely useful and expected to deal with at least four of the British companies she met, and that there was a possibility of future business with other suppliers.

All three buyers plan to follow up with visits to Glee in September and appreciated the chance to network and exchange knowledge with fellow international importers during the tour of three garden centres and also at the buyers’ dinner arranged by Gardenex.

The next ‘Meet the International Buyers’ events to be staged by Gardenex and its sister association PetQuip will be held at the Federation’s head office in June.  

Two garden buyers from German mail order/e-commerce retailers are already lined up for 7 June and a Canadian retailer/mail order company is attending on 20 June. 

Details of these and other international buyers that are keen to source products from UK suppliers of garden and pet products will be announced in the coming weeks.

To ensure that you don’t miss out on the opportunity to apply for 25 minute one-to-one meetings with any of the buyers on 7 June or 20 June, or to find out more about other Gardenex or PetQuip initiatives for both the garden and pet sectors, contact theresa@gardenex.com or emma@gardenex.com.