Winners of the 2019 Glee at Spring Fair New Product Showcase Awards reveal how competing in the innovation challenge can put key products in front of influential industry buyers

The winner and runners-up in the Glee at Spring Fair New Product Showcase Awards have revealed how the event helped to champion their latest products, creating a platform that highlighted the best in innovation for the attention of influential retail buyers.

The hotly contested awards, in association with Garden Trade News, saw judges scrutinise the best products to be brought to market for 2019, assessing each for innovation, design, promotion and potential to grow sales.

For winner Fly Away, an insect deterrent from Creative Products, the triumph at Glee at Spring Fair followed hot on the heels of a successful trial last year by garden centre chain Blue Diamond. Managing Director of Creative Products, Mark Hall, said: “Blue Diamond sold 4,000 Fly Away across 19 stores over two or three months.” He added: “Now, for Fly Away to win the New Product Showcase, is further great recognition of an innovative product.”

Fly Away is a safe and environmentally friendly device for fly-free entertaining and keeping flies off food. Creative Products believes that the uniqueness of the gadget – the battery-operated device quietly rotates soft, flexible dotted blades that insects do not like – helped it to land the sought-after first place.

Combined with an RRP of £9.99 – ideal for impulse sales – the company believes Fly Away will be snapped-up by consumers who want to enjoy outdoor living but demand environmentally friendly, chemical-free ways of keeping flies away. With the ability to deter flies within a one-metre range, Fly Away is likely to appeal to families and millennials who enjoy eating outdoors during the warmer months.

The Toronto Steak Grill from Tepro, which took the runner-up prize, is also expected to cash in on the popularity of al-fresco dining, a sector buoyed by last year’s long, hot summer. Tepro Key Account Manager, Andy Harding, said the grill was on track for its UK launch in April, making Glee at Spring Fair ideally timed to preview the product to buyers, with high street retail giant Robert Dyas agreeing to list the product.

Harding explained how the Toronto Steak Grill heats to a constant temperature of 800C, enabling a steak to be cooked in just one-and-a-half minutes. “But it’s more about the taste than the speed,” he points out, explaining that the intense heat “caramelises the meat” – a process that creates a delicious and crunchy crust while the steak remains slightly pink in the middle. Tepco says top heat grills are “the new trend in the grill market” and will “appeal to every barbecue lover”, helping retailers to grow the market for outdoor cooking products.

Winner of the third-place prize, The Mighty Little Digger from Creative Products, helped to reinforce how Glee at Spring Fair is the perfect launchpad for new lines designed to attract impulse buys. Priced at just £4.99, the handy tool with a heavy-duty carbon steel blade and prongs can dig, weed, hoe and till. Managing director Mark Hall said: “The judges recognised the product’s mass market appeal; they got that it was good for multi-tasking and they understood its appeal to amateurs and serious gardeners alike.”

Latvian biofuels business Dizmezs attended Glee at Spring Fair to unveil its Three-Hour Heat Box, a hassle-free pack of heat logs and wood-wool kindling aimed at busy consumers who don’t have time to gather ingredients for lighting a fire. The convenient solution, marketed under its WoodenSoul brand, is lit with a match and burns for three hours. It won fourth place in the Glee at Spring Fair New Product Showcase Awards.

Director Gunars Mitris said: “Glee during the previous two years has been good for us, but this is our first time here [at Spring Fair]. We invented the Three-Hour Heat Box, which offers three hours of heat guaranteed; nobody else does anything else like it. We are pleased that the judges recognised how the convenient product has the potential to appeal to busy people at a competitive RRP of £3.49 for a pack containing five logs.”

Woodlodge, which won fifth place with its William Morris Pottery Collection, said the New Product Showcase had enabled it to keep buyers’ minds focused on its latest product line at a key point in the new season. Sales Manager, Ian Flounders, said: “The judges noted how the William Morris range will bring added value to the container sector. They understood how the range had been influenced by current fashions in design and noted how the William Morris collection had been thought through.”

Find out more

Glee and now, Glee at Spring Fair, is the UK’s leading garden retail show. Both events focus on building year-round profits within core product categories including garden care, landscaping, outdoor living, garden design, pet, speciality food and catering, home, gift and clothing, and plants. Each year the two events attracts thousands of buyers from top retailers, such as leading UK garden centres, builders’ merchants, multiple retailers, and DIY stores. To keep up-to-date on all the latest news visit www.Gleebirmingham.com or for details on exhibiting at Glee 2019 or Glee at Spring Fair 2020, call +44 (0)203 3545 9752.

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Editors notes

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