Gardman's efforts to fully replenish stocks following from the fire that destroyed their Daventry warehouse in March have been delayed due to production capacity constraints of a limited number of their suppliers. CEO Pete Utting released the following press statement on Friday:
Following the devastating fire on the 12th March that destroyed almost all our inventory, we have been working hard to quickly rebuild stock cover and service to our customers.
Once we had established we could operate from our previous site at Kings Lynn we ordered our second half product range from the Far East in April for delivery into the UK during July.
Unfortunately, due to production capacity constraints of a limited number of our suppliers they have not been able to meet these delivery dates, with the consequence that some products are being delayed by 2 to 6 weeks. This will mean limited availability on a number of lines during August. (Please speak to your agent for specific detail.)
We wish to reassure you that this is very much a timing issue, and we fully anticipate availability to dramatically improve from late August onwards. The Gardman warehouse in Kings Lynn will have 3 months stock cover by the end of August and four months stock cover by the end of September. Dependent upon category, an average of four months stock cover is our target to meet the service standards our customers demand.
In specific relation to Doormats, the strike action in India affecting availability of the Coir industry is now over, with deliveries expected into the UK towards the end of August.
Furthermore, regarding 2019 we have already placed orders for our Gardening Catalogue and these will begin to arrive in our UK warehouse during November and December 2018 in readiness for the 2019 season.
We wish to thank all our customers for their patience whilst we continue to build our optimum inventory to provide the great service on which Gardman has built its reputation.
We look forward to seeing everyone at GLEE.
Pete Utting
CEO
