Glencrest started business in 1981 by Jack Whiteley in his back bedroom at Shoeburyness Essex overlooking the Beach and Sea, it is a lovely place.
The first Garden furniture was imported from Holland and it was very basic compared to today’s beautiful designs. Glencrest started cushion production in 1982 as they couldn’t find a decent supply so they set up their own factory. This was a very small unit of about 3500 square feet and was an old farm building. Today the Glencrest Cushion range offers the largest selection of outdoor cushions, Parasols and Parasol Bases.
The success is without doubt down to the packaging which is consumer friendly and staff are generally not needed when your customer decides which cushion they need. Similarly the Parasols come in 4 colour cartons with a complete guide to what’s inside and the cartons match with the Parasol Bases so it makes a nice presentation. Gone are the days of Brown Cardboard boxes stuffed under a shelf, the Glencrest range sells itself and we have proved that sales increase dramatically over brown cartons.
Every cushion is made in our own factory in the Far East and filled and finished in the UK providing work for 30 people, some of our staff have been with us for over 24 years. After 30 years in production the quality is superb. Following on, the Parasols and Bases have become big business for Glencrest with over 75,000 bases sold this year and close to 45,000 Parasols, it's big business.
Glencrest supplies over 400 retailers nationwide and is proud of its track record. Moving to a new Factory and warehouse two years ago everything is now under one roof incorporating a large showroom and spacious offices it’s a great place to work.
We have a team of sales representatives covering every area, some of whom are fully employed and some are Agents. Our Agents are the best in the business and we only use agents that do not represent too many companies. In the past we have struggled with agents but now we are more than happy in most areas.
Of course the Katie Blake outdoor furniture introduced six years ago has made a tremendous difference to the way Glencrest works and it is now a recognised Brand competing with all the majors.
Outselling most brands, just ask one of our customers it is difficult to keep up with demand as everyone knows if you don’t order enough you’re going to run out. This season we had quite a number of customers who selected Katie Blake along with other brands. They sold out of Katie Blake very early and would like to order more but they can’t because they need to sell the other brands they bought in.
Quite a number of customers think that a container is a lot of furniture and will take up a lot of space. We can tell you that 3 staff can unload a container in less than two and a half hours!
Find us on Stand 410 at SOLEX – We look forward to discussing your needs at the show.
