34 AND THE WINNER IS… Autumn Fair’s Pitch Live event showcases the most innovative products on the market. Here, we speak to the three finalists, including the winner, Rebrew! Meet finalist – Seedball! Seedball is on a mission to help and inspire more people to grow native wildflowers so that we can increase our bee, butterfly and other garden wildlife populations Congratulations on being a finalist at Autumn Fair’s Pitch Live event! Can you tell us about your product offering? Thanks so much. We were presenting our new ‘Wildflower Jars’, a set of 6 little jars each with 8 wildflower seed balls of a different flower type. The set includes cornflower, chamomile, marigold, forgetme-not, poppy and buttercup – all super bee and butterfly friendly native wildflowers featured on the RHS Plants for Pollinators list. With a RRP of just £4, they make for a cute till-side pick-up that’s a colourful and eco-friendly gift for all occasions including for stocking fillers or secret Santa gifts. The balls are easy to use and grow (simply scatter on top of soil and water), making them an ideal gift too for non-expert gardeners, children or those with mobility issues. A simple way to grow beautiful British wildflowers to help the bees! We supply them individually in packs of 6 or as a mixed box of 24 in a countertop display box. In your own words, what do you think makes Seedball so special and how is it different to anything else on the market today? We’re very proud to say that we were the first company in the UK to manufacture wildflower seed balls for retailers. Our aim was, and still is, to make growing wildflowers in garden spaces easy and popular to help increase the abundance of garden wildlife such as bees and butterflies (mine and my co-founders’ background is in Conservation Science). The company has grown organically (including growing some children too!) and we are nearing having made 100,000,000 balls over this time, which is a lot of flowers for bees! We originally made the seed balls by hand, and while we now have a few machines to help us, we still do this inhouse at our mini factory in London. We like to think of the Seedball brand as being ‘conservation in action’ – a product to help and inspire a change in gardening behaviours to support wildlife. Our product range is easy to use, colourfully presented so works well to gift, includes a range of retail prices, packaging forms and mixes. Seedball aims to help our customers to feel good and enjoy nature all the while supporting it too. We also work in partnership with The Wildlife Trusts, Royal Entomological Society and People’s Trust for Endangered Species, we give away over 100,000 seed balls a year to schools and community groups and we’ve just purchased a grassy field to re-wild using Seedball profits! Are you actively looking for new retailers for the brand? Yes, definitely, as the more retailers we can work with, the more bees we can help! Our products work well in most types of retailers as our range generally has something that would work for everyone. We have standing display units for larger retailers, countertop display units for our bestselling lines that work for most retailers, while for independent gift shops and museums the products also work really well as part of curated product offerings without POS. Our RRPs range from £3.50-£20. What are your plans for the future of Seedball? We’re super excited to be working on a decorative tin pot for Spring next year, which will be a grow kit including the pot, seed balls and coir. It’s our first venture into making a pot, and it’s very pretty! We’re also looking to expand our personalised offerings including wedding favours for florists and promotional matchboxes for the corporate gifting market. www.seedball.co.uk
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