It’s not only the Chelsea football team who are celebrating a West London twin triumph this month as table topping mail order gardening suppliers and manufacturers Harrod Horticultural have scooped a memorable award double at the 2012 RHS Chelsea Flower Show!
Celebrating their 10th year of exhibiting at arguably the world’s most prestigious gardening show, the Suffolk-based company were delighted to hear that the Harrod Slot and Lock® connector range, shortlisted for the esteemed Garden Product of the Year Award with 15 other innovative horticultural newcomers, had beaten off the opposition to clinch first prize.
The award was judged by a panel of gardening experts who were looking for innovative, sustainable and quality garden-related products and Chairman of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Garden Product of the Year 2012 award, Dougal Philip, was fulsome in his praise for Slot and Lock: “Congratulations to Harrod Horticultural for winning this award. The judges felt that this was a product that all gardeners can appreciate, and which offers a real solution to a real problem. It is simple and value for money, whilst being high quality and functional. The standard of entries this year was exceptionally high and we would like to congratulate all the contenders on what was a very strong short list.”
Harrod Horticultural New Product Development Manager Alex Rocke used footballing parlance to good effect in describing what the award meant. “Chelsea is the world cup of gardening and I feel like we've won!” he said. “We’re really over the moon and all the hard work by the Harrod staff on the development and marketing of the product has paid off.”
“The award is a first rate commendation that will help tremendously with national and international sales,” continued Alex - and he revealed the Slot and Lock range came to fruition mainly thanks to the feedback from disgruntled gardeners; “ listen to the frustrations of your customers and you won't go far wrong!”
In an award winning double celebration, the presentation of Harrod Horticultural’s 24 Pavilion Way display stand was rewarded with a Certificate of Commendation – their third award at this level – and a step up from the Merit achieved in 2011.
Managing director Stephanie Harrod was equally upbeat on the Certificate of Commendation award for the presentation of the stand. “It can be difficult to keep coming up with improvements to our stand especially as we’ve been at Chelsea for 10 years now,” she explained, “but this year we made a conscious decision to introduce more plants and focus on our in-house designed and manufactured product ranges of fruit cages, raised beds, manger planters and our new garden arches and structures.”
“We’re very happy with the way the stand looks this year and it’s been a real team effort as always to bring the design to life.”
The award winning Harrod Slot and Lock® connectors are ideal for constructing vegetable cages of all sizes along with crop protection and pea and bean frames which stay assembled thanks to stainless steel screws - the ‘lock’ part of the design. Quick and simple to use, the connectors come in many different configurations including an angled version and strengthening braces are also available for increase rigidity in windy conditions. Further details are available from Harrod Horticultural.
