Customers go potty for Hum Partnership’s colourful plant pots

Unusual and eye-catching plant pots created by Southam-based Hum Partnership are adorning gardens around the UK. Set up just two years ago, the firm is going from strength to strength - boosted by a grant of £25,000 from Warwickshire County Council (with match funding of £39,110 from the business).

Warwickshire Means Business caught up with Lara Kelly, co-owner of Hum Partnership, to hear the story behind the company’s success.

Why Warwickshire?

We live near Southam and, although we’ve lived in various parts of England and Scotland, this is our favourite part of the UK. It's very handy for business, being in the middle of the country.

What were you doing before you set up Hum Partnership? 

I was a freelance copywriter, as well as mum and housewife, and my husband Tim was MD of a successful business. About three years ago, we had both hit our forties and it just seemed like a 'now or never' time to do something completely different!

What made you decide to set the business up? 

We decided to start a new business which would give us more flexible working hours and enable us to share the family responsibilities more equally. It was always going to be hard work starting from scratch, but we had some savings and were determined to succeed. Between us, we have a wide range of skills and experience, so we knew each could take the lead on different areas of the business such as sales, marketing and admin.

Having said that, we are both constantly having to learn new skills as the need arises, such as sorting out website integrations and commissioning product display stands.

Why plant pots? 

We had been thinking about various business ideas when we found ourselves in a garden centre. We were looking for outdoor plant pots to brighten up our patio - but found a gap in the market. There were lots of traditional flower pots but not much in contemporary colours and patterns.

I love anything to do with interior design and architecture and also like the idea of linking indoor and outdoor spaces to create a harmonious style. Neither of us is particularly good with plants, but we like them. And we thought there must be a lot of people out there like us who wouldn't call themselves gardeners but like stylish products.

The idea made sense to us, so we quickly set about researching different manufacturing techniques and talking to designers about what we wanted to do, and the project grew from there. We have spent the past two years working with highly experienced British manufacturers, perfecting the technique - and both of us have learned an awful lot about plastic!

What do you think has been the reason for your success? 

Any new business needs huge enthusiasm and determination to get through the initial launch phase, and we've definitely got that. The advice, help and support of friends, neighbours and complete strangers has been important too. People are usually very happy to give us tips and business advice, or put us in touch with someone who can help, and that's been invaluable.

We also made the most of help available to start-ups, whether from trade organisations, local government or UK Trade & Investment. We've had some excellent mentoring help through Warwickshire County Council, at no cost, and were also awarded one of WCC’s micro-enterprise grants. We had to spend a lot of time and effort on presenting a good business case, but it was well worth the effort.

The grant has meant we can keep growing. In fact, it's possible that without it we might not still be here. We were getting interest from big customers but there is no point having interest without the ability to supply customers with the quantities and at the speed they expect. We badly needed to scale up production and the WCC grant enabled us to upgrade our manufacturing and create a fully automated production line.

How have you found Warwickshire as a business location? 

Ideal! We have good motorway access and a wealth of local businesses around us. Many of our suppliers are Midlands-based, and we have recently been creating bespoke designs for a well-respected local company, Hawkesmill Nurseries, near Kenilworth.

The local branch of UKTI supported and advised on exports and we've tapped into the research facilities at Warwick University where our pots have been tested for their UV resistance.

What are your plans for the future? 

Developing the business is our main priority. We are building up our customer-base in the UK and our exports are growing. We’re constantly working on new patterns for our pots and will soon be adding different sizes, so that we can continue to refresh our offering. The production technique enables us to apply bespoke patterns to our pots, for high volume orders, and this is an area we are currently developing too.

Warwickshire County Council has so far awarded grants to 21 firms following the announcement in October 2015 of £1 million available to small businesses over three years. For more information about small business grants or to check the eligibility of a project please visit: http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/businessgrants or contact Warwickshire County Council’s Economy and Skills Group on Tel: 01926 412709.