National treasures: Eden Project’s Tracey Smith on 2020

The company’s commercial manager on taking the time to consider how it wants the brand to develop and grow.

The museum, heritage and institutions sector has endured its own challenges throughout this year’s lockdowns – including venue closures, key exhibitions put on hold and social distancing measures to incorporate.

All of this means the importance of licensed products is higher than ever.

LicensingSource.net catches up with some key names in the sector to find out their views on the year to date.

Today: Tracey Smith, commercial manager, Eden Project.

 

“We started the year with a robust portfolio of products, each with strong environmental credentials through supply chain, materials, manufacture and packaging. Our licensees also have a strong presence with both traditional high street retailers and through online sales.

The programme has remained steady throughout lockdown with some strong growth in certain areas. Particularly strong have been the Eden range of seeds as consumers have been spending considerable time at home and the trend of ‘grow your own’ has boomed during lockdown. With the emphasis on outdoor living, all home and garden products have continued to perform well including garden furniture and associated products. Coffee pods have also seen steady growth through online sales channels.

Lockdown has also allowed time for Eden to really consider how we want our brand to develop and grow. Our focus for 2020 is to grow our current ranges with our licensees offering a wider portfolio of products for launch in spring 2021.

We are also very keen to add new products to our portfolio that sit in line with our strict sourcing criteria. We are not restricting ourselves to specific categories as we welcome approaches from a wide range of companies where our values are aligned and we both believe we can add value through working together.”

This feature originally appeared in the autumn 2020 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.

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