Buyers from a specialist German online retailer and mail order company that specialises in British products, as well as garden distributors from Germany and Romania (each with an online presence too) will be travelling to the UK on 30 November 2017 to meet with UK suppliers for the 'Meet the International Buyers' event organised by the Gardenex export association at its headquarters in Brasted, Kent.

The Romanian company is not only looking to extend its offering in its home market, but also plans to extend online sales into some neighbouring markets in  south-eastern and central Europe.  The two buyers will be participating in one-to-one meetings with suppliers.  

The first German buyer will be from The British Shop, a large family run business that specialises in high quality British products in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Founded 27 years ago, The British Shop sells a wide variety of British products, such as seeds and bulbs, tools and practical accessories, clothing, garden decoration, containers, wildlife products and gifts.  The products are also sold in the company’s store near Cologne and via a 300,000 catalogue distribution across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  The British Shop already works with some Gardenex member companies and is now seeking high quality UK items that will complement its current lines. 

There will also be two buyers from Delgarda, a new German company which has been launched recently to serve the German market.  It acts as a multichannel distributor and online retailer. Distribution is aimed at selling quality products to the DIY, garden, mail order and e-commerce retailers as well as other trade customers in the home and garden sector.  The company is also launching a new webshop which will offer both a closed B2B facility for its trade customers as well as B2C opportunities.  There will be a focus on Blog content giving news and practical advice to gardeners as well as marketing a wide assortment of garden products.  The company is also looking to develop own–label products.  Delgarda’s clients are leading companies in the German garden market, DIY and garden centres, including Hornbach, Bauhaus, Globus, Otto, Hagebau, Sagaflor and Dehner. 

The main focus for Delgarda during the ‘Meet the International Buyers’ event will be to source products made or designed in the UK, with the emphasis on a wide variety of practical and decorative gardening products.  The buyers will be looking for products that express the British garden lifestyle, such as decorative items, tools, garden equipment, seeds, garden buildings, greenhouses, landscape materials, outdoor furniture and seeds.

The Romanian buyer who will be attending the event is from Green Project SRL, a gardening product distributor and online retailer, which is also part of a central and south-east European buying agency.  The company is seeking to source hobby gardening and landscape products for online distribution in Romania, Moldova, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria.  Green Project SRL has participated in a previous Gardenex ‘Meet the International Buyers’ event as well as in International Buyers Connect meetings at Glee 2016 and is already buying from some UK companies. 

During meetings with UK suppliers on 30 November, the buyer will be seeking practical garden products such as seeds, hobby lawnmowers, workwear, wild bird products, natural/organic products, exotic houseplants, protective fleece, garden buildings, plus miniature/fairy garden products, innovative gardening gifts and original gardening products.

Commenting on the forthcoming event in November, the Gardenex director general, Amanda Sizer Barrett said:”Our tried and tested format of pairing the visiting buyers with appropriate suppliers of the products the buyers are looking for has reaped dividends over and over again in terms of substantial new and repeat export business for the UK garden and leisure industry.”