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Safety footwear has become a competitive area within the footwear market, with many new and established brands upping their profile. We caught up with one of the leading names in the market, Sterling Safety Wear Ltd, to find out why, after ten years in the business, they are worth a bet this season...
In these current times, many manufacturers are striving to produce lighter safety footwear with a great deal of flexibility. This is the one challenge which faces our side of the industry. Many employees are faced with longer working hours and need these extra properties in order to feel comfortable whilst at work. Life is not a breeze anymore, whatever line of work you are in and here at Sterling Safety we aim to make lives a little easier"
Wise words from Darren O' Dell Sales Director of the infamous Sterling Safety Wear LTD, a company which, establishing itself just en years ago in 1998 has achieved a suitable amount of success in a short space of time. With a full management team and full footwear manufacturing background within the UK, the company has been importing CE approved standard safety footwear to a superb standard for the full decade. Their current offerings to the market have really upped a notch this season with a full in stock service to customers with an approximate stock holding of around 180,000 pairs at any given time. Music to most retailers ears in this current era of uncertainty on sales due to confusing seasons and bad trading times.
"We understand that the market needs flexibility in terms of ordering, whether it be direct to the retailers or to the PPE market. We want to make sure that we can support their needs and the in stock system is just one the ways that we achieve this."
Currently dealing with around 1500 live accounts within UK/Irish safety/PPE market, Sterling Safety Wear Ltd are no small fry in a sea of safety footwear manufacturers. The brand is thriving and puts its success down to the companies solid ability to listen to the market's needs and respond suitably:
"Sterling Safety Wear Ltd are at the forefront of the safety footwear market with large growth year on year. Our young and enthusiastic team are constantly keeping an eye on footwear trends and changing technology and suitably addressing our collections." says O Dell.
This season they have chosen to focus on non metallic waterproof options in their bid to create the most flexible safety shoes on the market. Incorporating lightweight properties and the use of quality full grain leather uppers, the shoes have all the comfort and flexibility of a training shoe whilst being robust and suitable for the safety market. This is not an easy job to accomplish, but styles from Sterling have a fashion ability above other brands, and their use of infamous materials with great technological advances gives them a USP that stands strong.
"A large proportion of our safety footwear is sold direct to industry through PPE distribution. (Personal Protective Equipment)
We also have a growing area direct to retail. We are heavily involved with a major world wide brand of footwear under the DEWALT name. This brand is recognised as a leading player in the professional power tool market. Part of this range includes high performance footwear from Gore-Tex. All of these factors keep us as a brand who are always keeping people on their toes with new products and new areas of development, we never want to stand still. In this industry, you simply cannot afford to."
The company also offers a full package of point of sale material and help with in store promotions to any outlet who needs it, and want to be seen as a company who is more about building and maintaining healthy relationships with retailers than anything else. As their stockists numbers grow, they manage to keep a hold of a personal style service that gives them a great advantage over other brands.
You can catch Sterling at major health and safety shows and many trade events with DEWALT. The brand will also be at this seasons Moda, where they hope to secure more of the smaller retail outlets who are increasingly interested in the brand.
"We will see our brands move further into retail throughout 2008." concludes O Dell "Many large and small retail outlets have the ability to sell safety footwear successfully. We just need them to see our wonderful collections to believe it!"
For more information contact Sterling Safetywear Ltd
Crown House, 310 Wellingborough Road, Rushden, Northamptonshire NN10 6PP
Tel: 01933 353672
Fax: 01933 359149
Mobile: 07989 302524
http://www.sterlingsafetywear.co.uk/
darren@sterlingsafetywear.co.uk
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