Direct-to-Consumer Channel Update

RNS Number : 7130P

UP Global Sourcing Holdings PLC

22 June 2022

 

22 June 2022

UP Global Sourcing Holdings plc

"Ultimate Products" or the "Group"

DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER CHANNEL UPDATE

Domain purchase and website refresh

Ultimate Products, the owner of a number of leading homeware brands including Salter (the UK's oldest houseware brand, est.1760) and Beldray (est.1872), is pleased to announce that it has purchased the Salter.com domain name, which will now take the place of Salterhousewares.co.uk as the Salter brand's direct-to-consumer ("DTC") ecommerce channel. The Group expects that the new site, which is operated entirely by Ultimate Products employees, will benefit from being easier to remember, type and share, as well as ranking higher from an SEO perspective.

Ultimate Products will also soon complete an overhaul of Beldray.com, the DTC channel of Beldray, the Group's laundry, floorcare, heating and cooling brand. The new website will be live in August and, as part of this planned improvement, has undergone wide-ranging design and user experience enhancements by the Group's website and design team. Ultimate Products operates DTC websites for all of its owned Premier Brands, and is pleased with the growing popularity of these channels which, supported by SEO optimisation and advertising, are seeing an increasing number of visitors.

Online purchases account for 27%^[1] of non-food retail sales in the UK, and are expected to reach nearly 50% by 2025^[2].  However, online channels made up just 15.1% of Ultimate Products' overall revenue in FY21. Increasing the share of revenue derived from online channels therefore presents a clear growth opportunity for Ultimate Products, which expects such channels to account for 30% of overall revenue in the medium term. As well as owned DTC channels, the Group's online revenues also include sales generated on third-party multibrand platforms such as Amazon and eBay, which are the biggest contiributors to this segment.

Commenting, Simon Showman, Chief Executive of Ultimate Products, said:

"Our Direct-to-Consumer channels are a lesser-known part of our business, but demonstrate the range of skills across the Ultimate Products team. From website design all the way through to order fulfilment, our in-house talent has the capability to build and operate fully-functioning ecommerce sites, which are visited by hundreds of thousands of customers every year.

Despite already being a clear market leader, we have high hopes that the Salter brand can continue to grow healthily, particularly in international markets, which will be helped by this recent website acquisition. It is through this kind of innovation and agility that our suite of brands continues to grow and take market share. Combined with the huge audiences on global platforms such as Amazon and eBay, we are confident that we can achieve our medium term target for online channels to account for nearly a third  of our total revenues."

For more information, please contact:

Ultimate Products [phone]

Simon Showman, CEO

Andrew Gossage, Managing Director

Chris Dent, Finance Director

Shore Capital [phone]

Mark Percy

Malachy McEntyre

Powerscourt [phone]

Rob Greening

Sam Austrums

Notes to Editors

Ultimate Products is the owner of a number of leading homeware brands including Salter (the UK's oldest houseware brand, established in 1760) and Beldray (a laundry, floor care, heating and cooling brand that was established in 1872). According to its market research, nearly 80% of UK households own at least one of the Group's products.

Ultimate Products sells to over 300 retailers across 38 countries, and specialises in five product categories: Small Domestic Appliances; Housewares; Laundry; Audio; and Heating and Cooling. Other brands include Progress (cookware and bakeware), Kleeneze (laundry and floorcare), Petra (small domestic appliances) and Intempo (audio).

The Group's products are sold to a broad cross-section of both large national and international multi-channel retailers as well as smaller national retail chains, incorporating discount retailers, supermarkets, general retailers and online retailers.

Founded in 1997, Ultimate Products employs over 350 staff, a significant number of whom have joined via the Group's graduate development scheme, and is headquartered in Oldham, Greater Manchester, where it has design, sales, marketing, buying, quality assurance, support functions and warehouse facilities across two sites. Manor Mill, the Group's head office, includes a spectacular 20,000 sq ft showroom that showcases each of its brands. In addition, the Group has an office and showroom in Guangzhou, China and in Cologne, Germany.

Please note that Ultimate Products is not the owner of Russell Hobbs. The company currently has licence agreements in place granting it an exclusive licence to use the "Russell Hobbs" trademark for cookware (NB this does not include Russell Hobbs electrical appliances).

For further information, please visit www.upgs.com

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^[1]  https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/april2022#:~:text=The%20proportion%20of%20online%20sales,from%2025.9%25%20in%20March%202022.

^[2] https://info.metapack.com/ecommerce-delivery-benchmark-report-2022.html#_ga=2.267208521.698123534.1655727124-1054284544.1655727124

 

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