Meet-the-Buyers Events

A great chance for British suppliers to hold one-to-one meetings with international garden trade buyers seeking new products from the UK!

In normal times Gardenex holds regular Meet the Buyer events at our offices in Brasted, near Sevenoaks, Kent.  These are an invaluable and cost-effective opportunity for UK-based suppliers to have one-to-one meetings with international garden trade buyers.  Our speed-dating format allows UK suppliers the chance to promote their products and services in 25 minute meeting slots, and start the foundations for an excellent working partnership.  Buyers taking part include garden centre retailers, importers/distributors/wholesalers, mail-order and online stores from Europe and occasionally further afield.

As it is difficult at the moment for international buyers to travel to the UK, we are holding our Meet the Buyer events virtually via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.  Our next event will be held on Tuesday, 19 October 2021.  The buyer taking part is from The British Shop, the largest family run business specialising in selling high-quality British products in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  For full details and an online application form, please click on the tabs above.  If you would like more information, please contact Charlie Parker at Gardenex by email.

We have attended a number of these events and have always found them to be a very useful tool for our export market. In general they are very informative and have repaid the time, effort and expense many times over.

- A happy supplier!

The company taking part in our virtual event on Tuesday, 19 October 2021 is:

The British Shop – www.the-british-shop.de

Founded around 30 years ago, The British Shop offers a great variety of typically British products. In addition to high quality country fashion (Barbour, DAKS,  and London Tradition), it offers accessories, kitchen utensils, food, beverages, books, gardening products and gift items, mostly from traditional British manufacturers.

The products are sold via a catalogue – eight issues per year with a circulation of 300,000 copies, and 50,000 in Austria and Switzerland each – an online shop and a store near Cologne.

The buyer says that the emphasis is on high quality, ‘made in the UK’ products which complement their assortment. “We always look for something special, with an added value for our customer, and we do not need just normal gardening tools,” said The British Shop, which already works with several Gardenex member companies.

The buyer is “looking for something new in garden decoration or decorative garden tools, food for roses and smaller stone figures (max 7 kg). We have cats, gargoyles and dogs but something new would be nice for us. Garden lights is a big trend so we would like to do more in this field as well.”

I am really pleased with the incredible service offered by Gardenex & PetQuip. This was the second time that I had participated in a Meet-the-Buyers event and literally, just a few days earlier, I had received an order along with an order forecast from the buyer I met at the previous Meet-the-Buyers event.

- A happy supplier!

If you would like to have a virtual meeting with the garden buyer at The British Shop, please submit the short online application form (see tab above).  Gardenex will send a list of all UK suppliers who apply to the buyer who will select those they wish to ‘meet’.

Virtual meetings will take place on Tuesday, 19 October, from 10h00 to 13h00 UK time.  Each supplier selected by The British Shop will have a 25 minute one-to-one, private session with the buyer.  This is a great opportunity to introduce and present your company, products and USPs – especially at a time when many trade shows have been postponed or cancelled and international travel is difficult!

On the day itself, the Gardenex Events team will coordinate and connect buyer and supplier via Zoom or Teams and then withdraw, only re-entering the meeting when your 25 minute slot is over.

The cost is shown below:

On receipt of the online application form and confirmation from the buyer that she would like to meet you, Gardenex will send you an invoice.  Invoices must be settled in advance of the event.  Payment can be made by credit card over the telephone, BACS or cheque.

The Gardenex Meet-the-Suppliers events are better than five days at a trade show!

- A happy buyer!

If you would like to take part in our Meet the Buyer event on Tuesday 19 October 2021, please complete the application form below as soon as possible.