Member Article

Local company creates back office for new distributors.

Yorkshire-based marquee manufacturers Gala Tent Ltd have established their first international showroom in Dublin, Ireland after forming a partnership with Irish garden centre moguls, Home & Garden Direct.

Gearoid McDonald, MD of Home & Garden Direct made the lucrative deal with Gala Tent in March 2014, they became the first official distributors of Gala Tent in Dublin. The garden centre, who have now been branded as Gala Tent Ireland, have become the first international suppliers of Gala Tent’s goods. They are now able to provide a next day delivery service for Irish customers.

Gala Tent has a successful e-commerce website, with the site and the back office system built in-house by the IT team. As part of their deal to become distributors, Gala Tent Ireland have been given exclusive access to their very own Gala back office system to ensure that they are a success with Irish consumers. This will improve their sales and the growth of their business.

In October, the new distributors visited Gala Tent UK and were extremely interested in the printing department and new line of products. Gala set up their own in-house printing service Gala Graphics in November 2013, and since then has seen an increase in printing and branding sales. Gala Tent have offered to help Ireland set up their own printing service so that they are able to have a successful printing department like Gala Graphics.

The IT Team are also in the midst of developing an interactive Web App for their customers, which will allow customers to build and design their own 3D printed gazebo. They have also created their own Secure Order Transfer payment system, which has won several awards and stopped fraudulent transactions completely.

Mr McDonald and Gala MD Jason Mace had a business meeting upon the visit to discuss expanding the new showroom further and offering more products and services in Ireland. Gala are able to offer an extensive package for their new international distributors, including their ‘Business in a Box’ fully functioning website and back office system.

“We’ve found that so far we’ve been successful in international markets as our products are portable and durable for most climates. It is a relatively untapped market”, quoted Mr Mace.

Gala Tent are on the lookout to make further partnerships with entrepreneurs in the international market, as well as meet new Web Developers to join the team to support their rapidly expanding network.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michaela Stafford .