Show & SELL!

We recently visited with Debbie Remblence, vice president of North American sales for David Austin Roses, who shared some exciting new developments taking place at the Tyler, Texas-based company.

GC: David Austin Roses has changed its business model. Can you explain what the company will emphasize in 2011?

DR: Our new business model means that we can present the brand more directly and clearly to the consumer, achieving greater consistency and driving brand awareness. We’ll be working more closely alongside garden center teams to help increase their sales of David Austin’s roses and build long-term partnerships.

We’re excited by the response to David Austin’s Premier Partnership Program (PPP), which was specifically introduced to support our stocklists and help them deliver a premium branded product to the end consumer. As well as POP material, the support extends to knowledge and information sharing, providing regional advice where appropriate.

We’ll be working harder to share our product knowledge and will emphasise the many different ways our roses can be used in the garden. For example, we believe that David Austin’s Graham Thomas, James Galway, Golden Celebration and The Generous Gardener are some of the best of all climbing roses. They repeat flower in flushes from the top of the plant almost down to the ground, so you don’t see the ugly bare stems you often find in other climbing roses. We’ve never really promoted this aspect of our roses in America in the past, even though many of our more vigorous varieties can be really impressive when trained as climbers in the U.S. When we introduced climbing POP in the UK, sales of our roses as climbers grew significantly. As a result, we have created American climbing versions of our variety tags and bed cards for twenty of our best climbing roses to help convey the message that they can be trained to grow against pillars, walls, fences, obelisks and arches.

The Premier Partnership Program certificate

GC: We’ve already let our readers know about the new wholesale catalog. Could you tell us what customers can find there that might be different than what they’ll see in competitors’ catalogs? Also, aren’t there “limited quantities” with some items?

DR: We have completely redesigned the catalog this year and have added in many new features, after talking to our wholesale customers. It is based much more closely on our Handbook of Roses, which recently won a Quill and Trowel award from the Garden Writers Association of America.

Garden center teams are expected to be experts in every single plant they sell by home gardeners. We have great admiration for the work they do and wanted to provide them with easily digestible product information to help them quickly become experts in our roses. We believe our new catalog will help give carden center teams the confidence and enthusiasm they need to sell more David Austin roses.

We’ve managed to include a lot more information about each individual variety in a concise summary. This includes the habit of the rose, the number of petals on each bloom, the flower form and the unique fragrance, but more importantly, a practical guide to recommended planting positions in the garden.

New features include tips about growing our roses successfully in the garden center as well as at home. We don’t want our roses just to be exiled in traditional island beds. We set out to inspire more people to use our roses in mixed flower beds, in large containers in the yard, as hedges, against post and rail fences, as mannerly climbers… whatever the position, we believe we have a rose suitable! We don’t want the catalog to stay on the shelves as merely a buying tool; we want it to be one of the garden center team’s best selling tools – a working reference that they use every day. We want it to be well-thumbed and raggy looking by the end of the season!

We always have relatively limited stock of our new rose introductions. As a premium brand, our business model is quite different from a purely mass-market approach. This year, we are happy to report that sales are higher than anticipated, so we are already seeing some shortages of core varieties. If the trend continues, we will see shortages again next year - we are already talking to some customers about next year’s order.

The 2011 wholesale catalog

GC: There appears to be a bigger push than ever into the U.S. market. What prompted the decision to market so fervently to American gardeners?

DR: We were always convinced that there was so much more potential in America for David Austin’s roses and decided that we needed to lead the process. We have also seen a large increase of enquiries from our own mail order customers asking where they can purchase them locally and ready to plant.

Our extensive regional U.S. trials have given us greater information and insight about the performance of each variety across the differing climates throughout America. Rather to our surprise, there is much more consistency than we expected – there are relatively few varieties that show a strong regional bias. This evidence is helping to drive the momentum forward.

We are also benefiting from the continuing consumer trend towards a desire for opulent, fragrant garden roses with real character and charm rather than commodity roses. We believe that our pioneering work to develop a luxury collection of cut roses will help drive interest not only through gardening magazines, forums and blogs, but also interior magazines, women’s interest publications and lifestyle websites.

GC: What kind of marketing help does David Austin Roses provide retailers to help them sell more plants?

DR: Our own knowledge and experience in the UK and Europe has shown that sales significantly increase as soon as retailers install our full range of David Austin branded POP. Our benching system and Outdoor Display Unit (ODU) are custom-made within the USA and include eye-catching correx and headerboards. This material specifically highlights the characteristics such as form, fragrance and breeding that make David Austin Roses a premium product, helping to set them apart from other roses. The correx are individually chosen to represent the actual variety line a seller is offering, which promotes more sales driven to their own range they hold rather than a generic image.

The branded material also helps to reassure the American gardener that they are buying authentic David Austin roses from an official and recognised supplier.

This year we have also launched a new range of 50 variety bed cards, which now include zone recommendations, a variety description and picture, and recommendations for ways of growing each rose variety in the US garden. 

We hope this material will inspire American gardeners to be more confident and creative when using David Austin Roses in their gardens. Our much extended US wholesale catalog will help garden center teams guide consumers to make the right purchasing decisions.

  
New POP & merchandising materials are available for garden centers

GC: What roses, in particular, do you see being particularly popular in 2011. Why those?

DR: It is always a difficult question to answer, as our roses are not “one size fits all”! Each David Austin rose has its own unique character, beauty, fragrance and habit – you might say its “personality.” We are unusual in that our marketing team works hard to promote the breadth and versatility of David Austin’s roses as a collection, not just the latest new varieties. We believe this helps all our partners in the long term. Of course, we do have some stories that are particularly strong. For example, we’re still getting a lot of ongoing publicity for our yellow rose, ‘Graham Thomas’, which is more popular than ever. It is a highly versatile rose, which can be grown as a fragrant shrub or trained as a spectacular climbing rose, which undoubtedly adds to its overall appeal.  It will hold its prestigious title “The World’s Favorite Rose” until 2012.

Another U.S. favorite that will receive extra marketing support is ‘Golden Celebration’ with its magnificent golden-yellow blooms and its first-class ability to grow as a climber. It is another great choice for novice gardeners as it is so reliable and easy to grow. The flowers are strongly scented with a wonderful blend of Tea with delicious fruity notes. The evocative name makes it a great gift to commemorate any special celebration.

    
'Graham Thomas' (left) and 'Golden Celebration'