Branching out

The arrival in 2024 of AMES Tools to garden centres, is one of several developments seen at Glee in June. The brand will be based in East Yorkshire whereNick Jones, AMES Commercial Director and Caroline Elliott,Product and Marketing Director,talked to GTNabout future-proofing the business.

Inlatespring,GTN visitedaformer airfield in Pollington, East Yorkshire, where aircraft hangers arenow the warehouse and logistical centre for the Kelkay brandofgardenlandscapingproducts Sincethen, on hearingaboutthe exciting introduction of AMESTools, we havebeen sworn to secrecy,but nowGleeisoverfor another year,wecan bringyou moreinsight intothe tool range andother brands thriving under The AMESCompaniesumbrella.

Sinceits inceptionin1774, AMES has been selling tools in theUSA. Todayits brands, which include Union, Jacksonand Razor-Back, make it the market leader Closer to home in Ireland,the True Temper range has been atop seller for more than200 yearssoNick Jones, AMES Commercial Director, has confidencethe newAMES Toolsrange canbuild on this historyand expertise to claimits placeinthe UK market. “Wethink the value of theUKmarket fortools is around £60mand areveryclearabout wherewe wanttobein[UK] garden centres in the next threeyears,”hesays. “It’s allabouta slow, progressive,sensible approach.”

Market research hashelpedshape AMES Tools,and nowafter several years in themaking, the stainlessand the carbon steel ranges will be availableto garden retailers in January2024. Caroline says: “We’ve got strong relationships, huge sourcing scale,innovation andan R&Dinvestment channel. We’vealso tapped into ourglobal innovations and brought these into our tool range. Some of theexamples areusing Tempered steel, unique product patents like the Comfort Step foot tread,stamped heads in the carbonrange andnoweldline so there arenoweakpoints. Thecarbon wraps around and it’sgot double riveting to addto the strength.”

The double riveting and longer shank provides up to 45% morestrength. Quality and strength were the twomost important things to come out of market research (followedclosely by price) and this new development, says Caroline, shows AMES is taking its considerationoftool design to the next level. With FSCash wood handles, the 24 products in the carbon steel range and 26 in thestainlessrange arebeing flexibly offered to retailers who can choose from acarousel, freestanding unit or aback wall. Three walls accommodatethe full range. It will taketime to sell the storyofthe new range to gardeners but aQRcode on labels leads to awebsiteoffering moreinformation.

Television gardener David Domoneyisnow the toolsambassador and will be using and promoting AMES toolsinall his projects, on social media and soon to be created AMES videos.

Making space

Suddenly having room to accommodatea completely newrange can be alogistical challenge but thanks to anew agreement with Brett Landscapes to manufactureKelkay paving,the spacehas become available. “Brett is able to essentiallycopypasteour existing range and supply that to us,” says Nick. “When youstarttoappreciatethe level of automation theyhaveintheir business, expertise in servicing channels which don’t crossoverwith our sales channels, the way theycommercialise the quality standards, the consistencyofproduct and commercial setup,itmakes sense for everybody involved. This gaveusanopportunity to reviewour siteand acceleratesome of the thinking around the garden tools programme as abrand newproduct categoryinthe UK.” with German pot producer Formwerk so it can add aconsidered line of plastic pots to its portfolio

Machineryformally used to makeKelkay paving at Pollington, East Yorkshirehas nowgoneand by this autumn the spaceit occupied will be fittedout to storestock of tools. OtherKelka as normal, such as bagging decorativ making furnituref range. The siteiss in operation 24 hours with orders picked processed overni

Other Kelkay lines continue as such as storing and decorative aggregate and furniture for the Woodshaw range. The site is so busy that it’s in 24 hours a day orders picked and processed overnight.

Pots of newi new ideas rking

Again, AMES market research found room for growth intosupport this move “Wefound 85% of people had purchased aplanter in the last 18 months and the average number of planters purchased wasfive per person. So there’ssignificant opportunity,” says Caroline who adds that it wasthe plant that drove the choiceof pot and that £30 wasthe magic pricepoint. After considering colours, shapes, and finishes it wasdecided that plastic -with apercentage of recycled material and recyclable –was the answer.The result of this newlong-term arrangement is the Apta Lightweight rangeofWeben and Beton pots launched at Glee.

With afull complement of 40 merchandisers acrossthe UK servicing garden centres, retailers can be assured of good servicetomaximise sales.

“Essentially we create afull categorysolution,”says Nick.

Alongside anew working partnership with Brett Landscapes, Apta been forging links

Apta has links