as PDF - Mr. Fothergill`s

SPRING 2014
For your chance to
win free Seed Cubes
see page 4
Mr Fothergill’s
mission to get inexperienced
customers growing from seed
Encouraging beginners to Get Growing
“Grow Your Own” food remains massively
popular but for new and inexperienced
gardeners the sheer choice of seeds
displayed in garden centres can be
confusing and overwhelming. To overcome
this, Mr Fothergill’s ‘Get Growing’ range
of vegetable seeds is specifically designed
to cut through the confusion, providing the
ideal start for beginners.
“We want to get new customers committed
to vegetable gardening and Get Growing
achieves just that,” says Mr Fothergill’s
Seeds’ head of marketing, Ian Cross.
“We make it easy for customers who want
to grow vegetables but who have little or no
knowledge. Every part of the Get Growing
package is designed to help, advise and
get them started on a successful vegetable
gardening path,” adds Ian.
The range includes all the best-selling
categories that you would expect but all in
two compact Get Growing display stands.
The first has the range of Get Growing seed
packets including small pack sizes of peas
and beans. This covers all of the favourites
with easy to follow instructions, and
gardeners are taken from planting the seed
to harvesting the vegetables in simple steps.
The second display stand holds a selection
of Get Growing kits including the herb
windowsill planters and starter collections of
boxes of seeds with small pots and compost.
There are even mini propagators complete
with compost and seeds.
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Tim Jeffries and Dave Carey with two residents
of the Royal Hospital Chelsea
“Once these new gardeners have enjoyed
the thrill of growing and eating their own
food they will become more confident and
look at the wider range of seeds available.
We are literally growing our own new
market sector,” adds Ian.
To support the range gardeners can also visit
www.getgrowing.co.uk where more hints,
tips and advice can be found.
Seeds Cubed = Gardening Success
For customers looking to add colour to their
garden with the least possible work, the new
Mr Fothergill’s Seed Cubes are the perfect
answer.
Seed Cubes are available in four single
colour mini boxes: vibrant yellow and
vibrant red plus cool blue and cool white.
Each cube has sufficient seed for 10 square
metres. They are all hardy annual seeds
designed for easy gardening.
All that is necessary is to clear some ground,
sow the seeds direct from the cube, rake
in, water and watch them grow. The mixes
are a great way to attract more bees and
butterflies to the garden and cubes retail at
just £2.99 each or 2 for £5.
Great War
Centenary
Poppies “highly
successful”
The striking Victoria Cross poppies that
are now available in over 750 garden
centres in aid of the world-famous
Royal Hospital Chelsea, to mark the
centenary of the outbreak of the Great
War, are proving extremely successful.
Since the launch of our Victoria Cross
poppy, we have sold a staggering 40,000
packets and have raised over £10,000 for
the charity in just three months.
Garden centres throughout the country
are repeating their orders for the counter
displays containing 40 packets of seeds.
RHS Wisley, has sold so many packs
that they have already ordered a further
25 outers of 40 packets. The Victoria
Cross packets retail at £1.85 for a 250
seed pack, of which we donate 25p to
the Royal Hospital’s charity.
The poppy is remarkable with a very
bold white ‘cross’ striking across each
single red flower. They are quick and
easy to grow from seed and their
distinctive ‘pepper pot’ seed heads
can be dried and are useful for flower
arrangements.
For more information visit www.mr-fothergills.co.uk
Zasia ziarno
sukcesu!
We have one of East
Anglia’s greenest roofs
Not only did we take stands displaying the range of export packages
that we produce but we also showcased a multi-lingual version of
Seed Matters which we’d translated into Polish, Russian and German.
Our latest step in
doing this is fitting
almost 500 solar
panels on the roof
of our Kentford
headquarters. By
creating our own
energy we will not
only be reducing our energy costs, but most importantly, will be
reducing our carbon footprint.
At the end of February we attended Gardenia, the Garden and
landscape architecture trade fair, in Poznan, Poland.
In the multi-lingual version we encouraged readers to “Zasiać ziarno
sukcesu!” – sow the seeds of success!
Mr Fothergill’s export
manager, Vince
Tarry, commented:
“We are keen to
spread the word
about what Mr
Fothergill’s does
globally and taking
part in the Gardenia
show was a great
way to achieve that.
The multi-lingual
newsletter proved
very popular and
demonstrates that we
care about adding
the personal touch”.
As one of Europe’s
leading seed houses
we are constantly
striving to enhance
our green credentials.
The panels have been fitted on to the south facing roof of our
production unit and to the south, west and east facing roofs of the
main office and mail order warehouse. This is expected to generate
more than 20 per cent of our current electricity usage.
“We expect that the panels will generate around 113,000KWH of
electricity. What we don’t use ourselves will be fed into the national
grid and will therefore contribute to an annual carbon output saving
of about 50 tonnes,” says Mr Fothergill’s Seeds’ joint managing
director, Dave Carey.
“It makes sound environmental and financial sense. We are also
exploring other options to help boost our efficiency through green
initiatives including improving insulation, installing energy efficient
lighting and optimising the use of all power across the site.”
Helping the RHS to
Grow Your Own
Any readers of Seed Matters who are
members of the RHS will have seen a
rather special packet of Mr Fothergill’s
Lettuce Red Salad Bowl seeds in the
March edition of The Garden
magazine.
The free seeds were part of our
continued sponsorship of the RHS
Grow Your Own programme that
we have now supported for three
years. The objective is to boost
enthusiasm for home growing
and to encourage new gardeners
into growing their own fruit and
vegetables at home.
“It is an ideal association for Mr
Fothergill’s Seeds,” says head of
marketing, Ian Cross. “Our logo
features on the RHS’s monthly
emailed newsletter that is sent to
the 70,000+ members who have
signed up to the campaign.”
Throughout the rest of the year,
we will continue to support the
Grow Your Own programme with
content for the website including
hints, tips and offers. To join the Grow Your
Own campaign, simply visit www.rhs.org.
uk/gardening/grow-your-own and sign up
for free.
21 years with
Mr Fothergill’s
In January this year Larry White, one of our
territory managers, reached his 21st year
with Mr Fothergill’s Seeds - making him one
of our longest serving current members of
staff.
Larry looks after garden retailers in the south
west of England and has been incredibly
successful over the years, including winning
our “Sales Person of the Year (SPOTY)”
award at least six times with successive wins
in 2012 and 2013.
Larry accredits his success to his
undiminished enthusiasm for his job. He
said: “It may sound cheesy but it’s the great
relationships I
enjoy with my
customers that
makes all the
difference.”
“I’m as
enthusiastic
now as I’ve
ever been, if
not more so.
I’m aiming
for a SPOTY
hat trick this
season!”
Our trial grounds
are the heartbeat of the company
The heartbeat of Mr Fothergill’s Seeds is
a one-acre plot of land at the rear of our
Kentford site – the trial grounds.
It is here that new and existing varieties
are grown and assessed. In the adjoining
polytunnel we grow the widest range
of fruit and vegetables to monitor their
performance, growth and, ultimately, taste.
Our small team is led by Tracy Collacott,
our technical manager. The day to day
growing and management of all trials is in
the very capable hands of Brian Talman.
Brian has just celebrated his 70th birthday
and, with more than 50 years in the trade,
there are few people who can match his
proven expertise or experience in this most
challenging of horticultural roles.
Although when in bloom in the summer the
trial grounds are quite stunning, it is not a
show garden and everything that is grown
is there for a specific purpose. We do
open for the garden media in August for
our annual press day but its main function is
testing, proving and improving existing and
new varieties. We also try varying methods
of growing so that our gardening customers
can benefit and improve their own
horticultural success rates. Brian and his
team use only methods that home gardeners
can apply, albeit scaled up.
The jobs currently underway include
preparing the field, digging sweet pea
trenches, sowing under cover in our green
house and transplanting.
Getting to know the people behind the brand
In this issue of Seed Matters we talk to Dan
Langley, our Finished Goods Warehouse
Supervisor who has worked at Mr Fothergill’s
Seeds for 17 years.
What is your department’s role in Mr
Fothergill’s?
The ‘sell out’ is when most collections are in
place and we swap to sending out top-up
stock. The bulk of the top-up work starts from
early February and goes through to May.
The peak months are March and April.
What are the main challenges?
We are the final part of the process of
getting seeds to our customers. Putting it
simply, we pick and collate seed packets,
stands and point of sale material, pack it for
transit and get it out of the door on time.
Juggling space while building stock is
always a challenge. As you can imagine, if
we have to build everything before we start
despatch in August we can often be bursting
at the seams!
How many people work with you?
We usually have a narrow window of
time to get the seed displays set up, so we
have to stay focused on getting everything
out as quickly
and accurately as
possible. There’s lots
needed all at the
same time!
13 in total. Eight picking packets and five
stocking, packing and despatching. At peak
times we sometimes add a further eight
people, on a temporary basis, to help cope
with the high demand.
Does the job change throughout the year?
Yes, we have two distinctly different parts of
the season. We have what we call the ‘sell
in’ and ‘sell out’ season.
What’s the difference between ‘sell in’ and
‘sell out’?
During the ‘sell in’ phase, we sell collections
of seeds or main orders to our customers.
We start delivering the new season’s
collection for the start of August, so leading
up to this we will be focused on building
stock ready for delivery. Lots of stands and
point of sale material go out at this time too.
During the sell-out it is
all about responding
to demand. When
the sun is shining
and seeds are selling
no one wants to be
waiting for stock so
we need to make
sure we pick orders
quickly. Any order
received before
2.00pm will be sent
for delivery the next
day.
What’s been your busiest time?
2012 and 2013 where tough due to the
poor weather but 2011 was a very good
season for us and 18th April that year saw
our biggest dispatch day to date. That day
we sent out 426 orders or about 87,000
packets!! Last year we sent just over 27,500
deliveries in total.
Have you got any other statistics you can
tell us about?
I’m not sure how much this will mean to
anyone but we got through 36,000 metres
of tape and half a million staples last year
alone and picked 973,438 product lines.
Dan Langley (second from the left) and the despatch team
For more information visit www.mr-fothergills.co.uk
Some highlights of the
press appearances that the
Nation of Gardeners have
made so far
The Nation
of Gardeners
is blooming
Whilst weathering the storms
and surviving the floods, Mr
Fothergill’s Nation of Gardeners
has had its first bloom!
In February broad beans that were
planted as part of the October package
where spotted blooming in Devon. Our
representative in Ilfracombe speculated that
the broad beans had perhaps been helped
along by an incredibly mild winter or the fact
that they had, resourcefully, used a beach
wind break to shelter them from the storms.
Commercial director of Mr Fothergill’s
Seeds, Tim Jeffries, commented: “It’s great
to reach our first milestone and see our
first bloom! It’s unusual for broad beans
to flower as early as February but results
like this are the purpose of the Nation of
Gardeners. There’s obviously something
special about Devon!”
The Nation of Gardeners is really starting to
blossom, and not just in the gardens across
the country. Media interest in the campaign
is increasing with the gardeners recently
making appearances in magazines such
as Amateur Gardening, Kitchen Garden
and Garden Centre Update, as well as
becoming celebrities in their local papers.
Keep your eyes open over the next few
months to see the Nation of Gardeners
cropping up in more gardening magazines.
Follow the progress of the Nation of
Gardeners at their blog at http://
blog.mr-fothergills.co.uk or search
#NationOfGardeners on Twitter.
Mr Fothergill’s Seeds
helps Butterfly World
spread its wings
On 24th March Butterfly World, near St
Albans, re-opened, ready for the new
season supported by us. The site focuses
on educating children about the wonders
of butterflies, as well as other insect life,
including the lifecycle of the butterfly and
its extraordinary fragility.
The centre has many gardens, including
the Ivan Hicks Leaf Garden where visitors
are given the chance to see the garden
from the point of view of a butterfly. Guests
are made to feel miniature by hiding
among oversized items in the garden such
as pots, a hand fork, a cotton reel and a
match box.
We are proud to support Butterfly World
and have provided a 4.5 metres high
Mr Fothergill’s seed packet to the novelty
garden, complete with giant lollypop stick!
Our customers have been busy bees
In 2013 we partnered with the
Bumble Bee Conservation Trust
(BBCT) and donated 25p from the
sale of every packet of Johnsons
Bee Friendly Flower mix to the trust.
The BBCT was delighted by the amount
raised by our customers and will put the
money towards funding their ongoing work
to help preserve the bumblebee population.
The figures are now in and we are pleased
to announce that we raised £3,288 for the
charity.
Competition
Winter Seed Matters’
Competition Winner
In our Winter issue of Seed Matters we
gave you the chance to win a pallet display
of our Better Lawn grass seed, worth over
£650. The winner was Raglan Garden
Centre in South Wales. Congratulations!
We are giving away
Seed Cubes, worth £200
at RRP, to ten lucky winners.
Entering couldn’t be simpler. Just email info@
mr-fothergills.co.uk and tell us how many
varieties of Seed Cube there are available.
The closing date for the competition is 25th
April 2014.
General Enquiries: 01638 751161
GROWING BRANDS
FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Fax: 01638 554085
Email: info@mr-fothergills.co.uk
www.mr-fothergills-trade.com
www.johnsons-trade.com
Mr Fothergill’s Seeds Ltd, Gazeley Road,
Kentford, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 7QB