One of the up and coming companies at GLEE this year is Maingate, the family company managed by father-and-son team Ole and Peter Valentin. Its product range is exceptionally distinctive, and gives a wide berth to mass-market “me-too” products.
“Most would say that wheelbarrows is our flagship category,” says Peter Valentin. “Having marketed quality wheelbarrows to garden centres for over 20 years, we know exactly what professional buyers look for, and our new County barrows deliver it!” Maingate’s new barrows were launched last spring and were an immediate success with garden centres. They overcome some annoying niggles that have been irritating retailers for years: The frames are galvanised to prevent scratching and premature rusting, and the critical cross members that give the frame its strength have been beefed up.
Where other manufacturers use ultra-fast but flimsy spot welds, County have gone back to good old-fashioned seam-welding which is much stronger; and where others have tubeless tyres which end users cannot reinflate, County has inner tubes that make puncture repairs a simple DIY job.
County barrows have many other distinguishing benefits which put them head and shoulders above other brands. Conclusion: Discerning buyers are well advised to give County a close examination.
Last year’s big GLEE launch was SmartCandle, an impressive range of flamefree safety candles from the world’s largest manufacturer in this booming sector. SmartCandle produces some 1.2 million candles a week(!) and is the global brand leader, with products appealing to a huge cross section of the market, from card shops to departmental stores.
The 2009 SmartCandle collection has pride of place within Maingate’s GLEE stand. It will demonstrate the unique scope and capability of the brand, with competitive product ranging from dainty tealights in display stands that are ideal for garden centres (complete with mains-powered demo units); to the most elegant real-wax taper candles that would grace any dinner table.
GLEE 2008 sees the UK launch of a range of beautifully presented garden gloves from Rostaing, the leading European producer. Some may ask whether the UK market leaves room for a second major brand of gardening gloves, but Maingate’s answer is, “Precisely!” That question contains its own answer: The current brand leader is all-dominant and ever-present in virtually every retail outlet, small or large, group or independent.
It would be completely unnatural if a cross-section of progressive retailers were not asking themselves: “Must every glove display in the land look the same? Is it really impossible for the 25 per cent of stores that aspire to true distinction to come up with a credible and capable alternative?”
The Rostaing-Maingate alliance aims to present that alternative, and 2008 sales in pilot stores have come in way ahead of expectation, showing wonderful potential to decisive, independent-minded garden centre owners.
See Maingate at GLEE: Hall 5, Stand G12
For further information telephone 0845 230 6585 or visit http://www.maingate.co.uk/
