Evergreen Garden Care Invests In Muddy Trowel

Evergreen Garden Care (EGC), the leading gardening care company outside North America, has announced that has it has led the first seed investment round in Muddy Trowel, a UK start-up began during the COVID-19 lockdown and which is revolutionising the e-commerce gardening space by targeting amateur and aspiring urban gardeners to help them transform their outdoor spaces (no matter what size).

The investment comes following the rise in individuals taking up gardening following the multiple lockdowns of 2020-21. As social structures evolve, particularly after lockdown, the age bracket of 25-45 is a key demographic for the category, and Muddy Trowel appeals to this audience.

Muddy Trowel was founded in April 2020 to provide consumers with plant kits, bespoke to their space and direct to their door. As garden centres were closed during the first UK lockdown, Muddy Trowel supported London-based growers and offered sustainable plant kits to gardeners, designed to suit their style and space. Successful entrepreneur Steve Folwell created the service after learning of the significant impact lockdown had on the UK horticultural industry. Muddy Trowel’s mission is to deliver joy to customers whilst making gardening accessible for everyone.

EGC produces high quality garden care products designed to help people create their own green oasis amid the rush of modern life, with brands such as Miracle Gro, Levington, Tomorite and Clear!. EGC’s mission is to inspire everyone to create and maintain their own green oasis, indoors or outdoors, in whatever space they have available.

As well as the category growth within garden care, both EGC and Muddy Trowel understand the increasing consumer desire for environmentally sustainable gardening products. Muddy Trowel ensures all materials, including from all partners are sustainable and in line with their commitment to the environment. EGC has recently asserted their dedication to sustainability by announcing it is set to increase Peat-Free production capacity with an investment of £7 million in 2022. As the only garden-care company to have its own in-house R&D centre, the company is able to dedicate time and resources into developing technology and products to meet the evolving sustainability needs of their consumers.

Mark Portman, Managing Director of Evergreen Garden Care, commented: “Following lockdown, we saw an increase of 2.7 million households taking up gardening. Whilst garden centres were closed, it was vital for other outlets to be able to meet the needs of our consumers in new and relevant ways. Now that garden centres are back open, we’re seeing lots of consumers head back to this channel. With so many new gardeners, we must ensure we are targeting them in a variety of ways and Muddy Trowel offers a fantastic, targeted proposition. We strongly value Steve’s vision and mission for the brand. His success story from a particularly difficult time for all industries is one we want to encourage and nurture as we all move forwards, we are very excited for the future of Muddy Trowel.”

Muddy Trowel founder, Steve Folwell said: "This investment and partnership with Evergreen will help us scale even faster across the UK and beyond - we look forward to working with one of the most forward-thinking management teams in the industry to introduce the joy of plants to millions of new gardeners.”

Source : Evergreen Garden Care

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