Stewart and Pippa Greenwood team up to promote grow your own
British plastics manufacturer, Stewart, and grow your own specialist and regular broadcaster, Pippa Greenwood, have signed an initial three year partnership agreement. The parties will work together to help consumers improve their understanding of growing fruit and vegetables at home and support retailers in this increasingly popular market sector.
The agreement, announced today at Glee 2011, covers a wide range of joint promotional and educational initiatives. As well as appearing on the Stewart website, Greenwood will attend promotional events and take part in a grow your own training road show for consumers and trade customers. In turn, Stewart will have a presence on the much-loved gardener’s website, www.pippagreenwood.com, and promote the url on point-of-sale materials and stickers on 200,000 products. The website will be enhanced with features and products for Stewart customers.
Stewart and Pippa Greenwood also plan to maximise social media and blogging opportunities to make advice and product information available to the widest possible audience.
Commenting on the agreement, Nigel Thompson, Sales Director of Stewart, said, “We are delighted to announce our partnership with Pippa Greenwood. Pippa is highly experienced in grow your own and is a familiar personality, thanks to her regular appearances on TV and radio where her advice is keenly sought after. The coming together of the best of British manufacturing and gardening know-how will add even more value for our trade customers and consumers. Everyone at Stewart is looking forward to working with Pippa.”
Greenwood is equally excited about the agreement. Speaking from the Stewart stand at Glee 2011, she said, “I am thrilled to be working with Stewart. Their product range demonstrates a real and long term commitment to grow your own – something that everyone knows I am passionate about. I believe that, together, we can support retailers and help gardeners everywhere get the very most from their grow your own efforts.”
For more information, visit www.stewart-garden.co.uk.
Glee 2011 is taking place at the NEC, Birmingham, 19 – 21 September. Stewart Garden is exhibiting on stand 5C06-D05. Pippa Greenwood will be available on the Stewart stand from 10am today.
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For more information contact: Sara Tye at redheadPR on 07786 176 617 or email: sara@redheadpr.co.uk.
Emma De Maio at redheadPR on 07921 160 134 or email: emma@redheadpr.co.uk.
For past releases and more information click here http://www.cisionwire.com/stewart
Editors Notes
Stewart
Formed in 1945, Stewart is the UK market leader in the manufacture and supply of technical plastic moulded products for the gardening, home and professional catering sectors. The company offers a large range of products in its portfolio ranging from garden planters and propagators, to food containers and specialist storage products. The company employs 75 people in Croydon and enjoyed a turnover in 2010 of £13 million.
In June 2011 ECI, the mid-market private equity specialist, invested £12 million in the company in a BIMBO (buy-in / management buyout) deal that valued the business at £17 million. A new management structure saw Richard Butler join as Group CEO. Butler has significant knowledge of the advanced technical plastics sector, having worked for leading manufacturers in the aerospace and automotive sector. Lee Mowle, the previous owner and CEO, became Managing Director of the gardening and catering divisions, retaining a substantial shareholding in the company.
In the months following the BIMBO, Stewart made a series of changes to its brand and corporate identity and established discrete divisions for the core sectors it serves.
Stewart Garden produces grow your own products, watering, pots, propagators and garden accessories. These are available in over 1000 outlets across the UK and Eire including major DIY outlets such as Homebase and Wilkinsons and garden centres across the UK such as Dobbies and Klondyke/Strikes, The Garden Centre Group and some 600 plus independent garden centres. Having achieved a dominant position in the domestic market by offering durable, lifestyle-driven value for money products. The company continues to invest heavily in new product development.
Stewart Garden plays a full and active role in the gardening and leisure industry through its membership of:
- GIMA – the Garden Industry Manufacturers Association
- Gardenex – the Federation of Garden and Leisure Manufacturers Limited, and
- HTA – the Horticultural Trades Association
Stewart won the House Beautiful Best Product Garden Category in 2005 and the Klondyke Dry Goods Supplier Award in 2010. The company was a GIMA Awards - POS Finalist in 2009, and Best of British Finalist in 2011. Its Heat and Grow Thermostatic Propagator was top in the Which? Gardening Best Buy test on windowsill propagators 2011.
Stewart Home provides food storage and homewares products. These comprise the Refine, Essentials and Seal Fresh food and drink storage collections, offering hygienic storage in a wide range of colours and shapes.
Stewart Catering supplies the Gastronorm and Seal Fresh food storage ranges to the catering industry and specialist cook shops via wholesale and cash and carry outlets.
Other divisions recently established under the Stewart umbrella are:
Stewart Aerospace
Stewart Automotive
Stewart Medical
Each division of Stewart is BS ISO 9001-2000 accredited and operates from the company’s manufacturing, warehousing and distribution centre in Croydon, Surrey.
For more information visit www.stewartlimited.co.uk
For editorial enquiries pictures, interviews and samples, contact Sara Tye on 07786 176 617 or email sara@redheadpr.co.uk.
Pippa Greenwood’s Biography
Pippa Greenwood trained as a botanist at Durham University (BSc hons) and then gained an MSc in Crop Protection at Reading University. In 2007 Pippa was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc) by The University of Durham for her work in gardening and its science.
In 1985 she joined the staff of The Royal Horticultural Society’s Garden at Wisley in Surrey, where she ran the Plant Pathology Department, answering several thousand queries from gardeners every year.
In 1988 Pippa began working for the BBC, joining Alan Titchmarsh for the gardening slot on BBC 1’s Daytime Live.
From 1989-2002 she was a regular presenter on BBC 2’s Gardeners’ World, presenting many items on garden pests and diseases, science and gardening, and creating and running her organic kitchen garden from her own Hampshire garden. She is also a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, travelling the length and breadth of the country to present the programme throughout the year. In 2000 , 2001 and 2002 she presented her own series, ‘Growing Science’ on Radio 4. For several years Pippa was the Presenter on BBC Radio Solent’s ‘Topsoil with Pippa Greenwood’, a three hour gardening and music show.
She has guested on a number of television and radio programmes including : Tomorrow’s World, You and Yours, Woman’s Hour, BBC Breakfast, This Morning, GMTV, Breakaway, Grass Roots and Call my Bluff. She was a judge for the BBC Gardener of The Year 2001 competition.
Pippa was the gardening consultant for the ITV murder mystery series Rosemary and Thyme starring Pam Ferris and Felicity Kendal, advising on the gardening sub-plot and other plant related matters, and the gardening personalities of the two actresses!
Pippa has several regular writing commitments including BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, and a monthly page in ‘NFU Countryside Magazine’.
For eighteen years Pippa was the gardening columnist for The Mirror newspaper. Pippa writes a blog for BBC Gardeners’ World Website and has her own website, www.pippagreenwood.com where she has a gardening blog from which she has recently launched ‘Grow Your Own with Pippa Greenwood’, offers ‘AskPippa’ a garden advice service and makes topical garden comment.
Pippa has written many books including the bestsellers, ‘New Gardener’ (in excess of one and a quarter million copies sold) & Gardening Hints and Tips, Garden Pests and Diseases, Garden Problem Solver, Flower Gardener, Pippa’s Organic Kitchen Garden, A Garden for All Seasons, Pippa Greenwood’s Gardening Year. She co-authored The Gardeners’ Question Time book. Her latest book is ‘1001 Ways to be a Better Gardener’ (Mitchell Beazley).
Pippa lectures, hosts gardening tours and gives gardening-related demonstrations all over the UK and abroad.
Pippa lives in Hampshire where she gardens on a windswept hillside with a strongly alkaline, heavy-clay soil.
