Photo by kind permission of Barakura English Garden
Last year we were approached by a Japanese garden writer working in the UK, to supply a gazebo and rose tunnels for a garden in Tokyo. Our furthest reach until then was supplying British customers with items for use in their properties in France.
We have had enquiries from the states but transport costs have always been prohibitive, the Japanese customers could arrange their own transport.
The biggest worry I had was ensuring that we understood fully the customers’ requirements and that they understood what it was we were offering (the items were non standard). The sequence would be an email to the garden writer who was translating our email into Japanese, receiving a reply in Japanese, which she then translated into English for us.
After a fair bit of correspondence I asked a question I should have asked earlier, where in England was the lady based, pretty close to us as it turned out. We agreed a price made the items assembled some of them the lady came over one Saturday morning photographed the items in bare metal (including the famous Fenland Ironworks gazebo test process). She then emailed the photos back to Japan we were paid, then had the items galvanised , powder coated and they were collected for the boat trip to Japan.
We have since sent items into France and Italy. Last week we had a follow up order from the customer in Japan who very kindly sent us photographs of the Traditional Rose tunnels and Special Henley gazebo installed at the Barakura English Garden.
It would seem the internet has allowed us the showcase we need for people to see what it is we offer and from further a field that we would have thought possible, only a few years back.
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