Manufacturer Supplier of Environmentally Friendly Products For Sale

Business description

Leading manufacturer and supplier of environmentally friendly products to the gardening and outdoor living sectors in the UK and Europe and USA

The current owner of this well known and dynamic company has been involved within the business at senior level since 1999, first as an employee and more recently as the owner. The business supplies garden, outdoor living and landscaping products, to the UK, Europe and USA providing innovative, high quality, labour saving, environmentally friendly items for amateur and professional gardeners everywhere. The main business activities are focused on:

• Designer planters for the interior and exterior market (Heritage Planters)
• Self-contained water features (Heritage Water Features)
• Labour and water saving irrigation system (Mona Plant System (MPS) and Billy Hydrabase Root Watering System)
• Environmental control products such as grit/salt bins, street orderly barrows and litter bins (Rotoplastic)

The business owns all of its product designs, production tools and patterns. Production is outsourced to a small number of specific manufacturers located in the UK. Because of this the business is able to offer:

• Unique Product Range – MPS and Billy Hydrabase. MPS is the only effective sub-terranean watering system that caters for all landscaping requirements both indoor and outdoor, plant containers, plant beds of any shape, form size and gradients, as well as modular based solutions.

• Attractive designs which are manufactured to a very high quality.

• Prompt despatch.

• Excellent customer care and personal attention that comes with a small business.

• Good value for money.

Customer Service:

The company ethos is to treat all their customers the way they would expect to be treated by their suppliers. This ensures all clients enjoy prompt, accurate, honest and reliable service at all times. All the company suppliers are ISO 9001 certified. Although the business itself is not required to hold any QA certification, all internal operations comply with the standard(ISO 2002 Quality Assurance).Many of the products this business provides have been used by landscapers and professional specifiers for over 20 years to complete prestigious and award winning projects such as Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Disneyland-Tokyo, Ferrari showrooms, a royal garden in the desert of Saudi Arabia.

Employees:

The business is currently run by the owner together with a full time office manager.
Key Strengths:

This business is a highly reliable and respected supplier with an attractive range of quality products and responsive customer service. It boasts
• A well established customer base in the commercial sector in the UK with several large customers in the USA and Europe.
• For Mona Plant System, proven product and established export distribution in Europe, US, Australia and Japan predominantly to the commercial sector (ie landscapers and local authorities)
• Increased gross profit contribution
• Expansion possibilities into new market sectors to improve their vertical integration
• Steady profitable business with significant scope for growth

Property information

Location:

The company has a short term office lease in Douglas centre which expires at the end of 2009. The current shareholders will be happy to retain the lease and offer the buyer the flexibility to relocate the business if so required. Rent is £5,500 per annum inclusive of rates. The premises comprise first floor open plan self-contained office unit with separate toilet and kitchenette located within the main commercial area. Electric/Water supply.
High speed broadband connected.

Security:

Secured entrance with intercom and buzzer door.

Other information

Expansion potential:

The outlook for the gardening and landscaping sector is promising, especially for products that offer labour saving and environmental benefits. The strive towards a “greener” environment, particularly in urban greenification as well as the topical issue of water conservation are all factors promoting the growth of this dynamic business.

For a buyer with strengths in sales and marketing or similar customers then there is significant scope to expand sales from the company’s current customer base and product range and also to add new customers. As there are minimal fixed costs, incremental sales flows through to bottom line profits. However, as sales volumes increase, there is also scope to improve gross profit margins due to economies of scale in the manufacturing process ( longer production runs etc ).

Key Opportunities:

• Planters, Water Features and Billy Hydrabase – significant opportunities to tap into new markets such as garden centres and retail stores.
• MPS – growth is expected from the UK local authority sector on which marketing initiatives have been targeted the past year.
• MPS – significant opportunities in other export markets especially the retail sector in the US and the Middle East
• Environmental products – an established business on a dated product range which could easily grow via introduction of new products

Competition / Market:

The business currently engages the services of an external public relations company which issues articles and news about its products and services to numerous trade journals on a monthly basis. The focus is on the commercial sector for MPS, Heritage Planters and Environmental Products. Ad-hoc advertising in landscaping magazines and trade journals is also undertaken to support editorials. Newly designed brochures with a clearly identifiable corporate image have just recently been developed that improve both the brand and communication and exposure of the business. The business also has a highly informative and interactive website which enables orders to be placed online.

Support & training:

Full support and training will be provided to the successful purchaser.

Reasons for selling:

The vendor wishes to pursue other business interests in other sectors.

Trading hours:

9.30 – 5.30 Monday to Thursday,9.30 – 4.00 Friday

Contact the seller