A 40 per cent increase in business for 2013 and the addition of 800 new UK garden accounts for its recently introduced Worth Gardening brand were among the highlights at last week’s Garland Products sales conference.

Worth’s operations director Tony Dedman said the achievement had been remarkable against the background of a very cold winter.

Delegates learned details of more than 90 new products to be unveiled to the trade at spoga+gafa in Cologne and at Glee later this month.

Paul Whitnall, who covers the south east, was named sales agent of the year, with Andy Burton (south west) a close second and Richard Foster (north east) third.

Family owned Garland Products, a division of Glendenning Plastics founded nearly 50 years ago, specialises in the plastic injection moulded products for keen gardeners.