Page 23 - I-Plants Magazine July 2021 TH_EB_TH_FINALJuly 30F5 update Aug 6

MAINTENANCE

During spring 2020 and the strict-
est of lockdowns here in the UK,
gaining site access became an
issue due to many offices being
vacated while everyone was work-
ing from home. We had to commu-
nicate regularly with our clients
to stay abreast of the changing
landscape, which our client manag-
ers did virtually through frequent
emails and phone calls. As soon as
our maintenance teams were given
permission to return to client sites,
it was important that they could
do so safely, so they used their
own methods of transport where
possible in order to avoid London’s
public transport – something that
we usually rely on heavily.

A choice we made that hugely helped
us throughout lockdowns and periods
of restricted access was the use of
Vulkaponic in our planting. As a sub-
strate, Vulkaponic’s ability to retain
excess water meant that when we could
not tend to our client sites as often as
we would have liked, the plants had a
much better likelihood of surviving. This
greatly reduced the cost of plant re-
placement, and ultimately put us under
less strain as a business, both financially
and operationally.

RETENTION OPPORTUNITIES

Not only did we have to overcome Although there have been many nega-
logistical issues regarding the main- tives to come out of this strange period, it
tenance of our planting, but we had to has also given Plant Designs the opportu-
face the harsh reality of temporarily nity to develop a clearer focus on who we
losing 40% of our clients within a month are as a company. While business may have
of the lockdown taking effect. This was slowed during the pandemic, our hard work
a tough storm to weather, but one that as a company did not.
was made much easier by the fact that
much of our business is structured on a We have used the time to grow in many
rental and maintenance basis. ways, including branching out into new and
exciting sectors. Over recent months we
With clients renting our indoor planting have been developing our events depart-
month-by-month, most understood the ment, our design and build department, and
importance of continued maintenance our brand new retail space located above
so that the plants would still be alive our showroom in Farringdon, London.
upon their return to office. Having already developed a successful
This structure, along with the loyalty of Christmas business, we spotted that certain
many of our clients, has allowed us to clients wished to host other impressive and
stay afloat throughout many worrying memorable events year-round, and from
months. there our events department was born.

iplantsmagazine.com | Edition #7 - July 23