STAX have seen a dramatic increase in business since the breakdown in negotiations between Scotts and Solus.

Joint Managing Director David Hibbert told GTN Xtra that it had proved to be a busy and interesting period for the company, which started out as a cash-and-carry business in 1981.

“Until a few weeks ago we were heading for not stocking Scotts products because of the proposed deal with Solus. But things have changed dramatically for us, and the amount of business has grown following the announcement that Scotts and Solus were no longer in negotiations.”

STAX have been wholesaling gardening products since 1981and began to distribute to garden centres with the demise of Spread. David described it as a ‘major coup’ when the company were appointed official distributors of Scotts products two years ago.

“We were the new kids on the block and have since worked hard to move into this sector of the market place. We now have 19 sales reps calling on our current and prospective customers, and we are now seeing our efforts paying off.

“Garden centres seem to like our approach and more of them are doing business with us. People are coming to us now, and are opening accounts and placing orders.

“This latest development is a great opportunity which we don’t want to waste. This is a key time for us and we want to manage it properly. We are more than capable of handling the situation by introducing a night shift for picking and increasing our overall stock levels to ensure full support for this new business although but I would ask garden centres to be patient in the short term

“We are a £100 million turnover business so we’re not a small company, and suppliers and garden centres can be confident we can deliver on our promises.”

STAX now have night shifts in operation at four of their depots – Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Bristol – and have invested heavily in new technology like the most up-to-date handheld picker scanners.

David has sympathy with garden centres in the current climate as they are still trying to work out what’s going on and who to buy from.

“It’s a difficult time for the industry as garden centres face some key decisions and changes,” added David. “But I can assure them that STAX and our Scottish arm Wishart are geared up and ready to help centres get through this challenging and uncertain period.”

For more information on STAX visit www.staxtradecentres.co.uk