Unprecedented demand over the past two years

from The Hardware Journal January/February 2023

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2022 was certainly a tale of two halves, it began with the biggest ‘pre-season’ order book in the ninety-year history of the business and ended with demand normalising back to 2019 numbers, says Niall Nugent, Sales and Marketing Director at Ames True Temper. The Cork-based company, which is part of the Ames Global Group, reported unprecedented demand over the past two years with sales almost doubling in that period.

Now distributing all Ames UK and Ireland brands from the newly developed site at Whites Cross, Niall says “We are now positioned to better service our customer base with smaller orders more frequently. Not only experiencing it ourselves but talking to many of our customers, there is quite a lot of congestion in terms of overstock in certain categories. With brands such as True Temper, Darby, Kelkay, La Hacienda and Woodshaw, it’s no surprise to hear the ofﬁcial launch of the Apta Garden Pot brand in January 2022 was yet again another huge success for the business”.

The garden pot category is not a new category for Ames True Temper considering the sizeable direct import business they have with a number of Europe’s leading retailers under private labels. However, the launch of Apta is a ﬁrst for them considering the branding and product designs created by their own design team. Niall goes on to say, “We believe as we move into the 2023 season, demand will be more consistent with retailers paying particular attention to stock holding so that’s where we come into our own when it comes to providing a weekly service across all categories with a very modest, minimal order value of ¤400. This is further supported by our best-in-class POS solutions. “We have 95%+ stock availability, next day delivery and a complete merchandising service. The saying ‘our best days lie ahead’ is very much true about our business, considering what we have created and our ambitious plans for the future”.