40,000 Miles on the Road Delivering Metal Planters

Over the past year, we’ve covered roughly 40,000 miles delivering metal planters across the UK, from the bottom of Cornwall to the top of Scotland.

That number isn’t something we ever set out to achieve. It’s simply the result of how the business works: planters being designed and made in the workshop, and then delivered directly to customers all over the country.

While the workshop runs day in, day out, a large part of our team’s time is also spent on the road — loading vans, planning routes, and getting finished planters safely to where they need to be. The two things run side by side, and both matter equally.

Delivery isn’t an add-on for us. It’s part of the process.

Delivery as part of how we work

When we make large, bespoke metal planters, delivery isn’t something we can treat lightly. These aren’t parcels that can be handed off and forgotten about. How they arrive matters just as much as how they’re made.

That’s why we handle deliveries ourselves. Not because it’s quicker or cheaper — it usually isn’t — but because it means the same care that goes into making a planter carries through to the moment it arrives.

We’ve written elsewhere about the practical details of how planters are packed and delivered. What’s worth talking about here is what we learn when delivery is handled consistently, alongside production continuing in the workshop.

Seeing where the work actually ends up

One of the benefits of delivering planters ourselves is getting to see the gardens they go into and meeting our customers in person.

While planters are being made in the workshop, deliveries are heading out to gardens, terraces, courtyards and commercial sites across the UK. Some are small residential projects, others are part of larger commercial schemes with tighter schedules and more moving parts.

Seeing this variety in real life gives us a better understanding of how our work is actually used. We start to notice which sizes work best in certain spaces, how colours behave in different light, and how practical details matter once a planter is in place.

That feedback doesn’t disappear. It feeds back into design decisions, the advice we give customers, and how we approach future work.

The practical reality of covering that distance

Covering this kind of mileage takes organisation.

Deliveries have to be planned around production schedules, routes mapped out, access checked, and timings agreed — all while the workshop continues turning out finished planters. In busier periods, deliveries can run back-to-back, sometimes covering large parts of the country over the course of a week.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s deliberate. The aim is simple: planters leave the workshop properly made, and arrive exactly as they should.

Why systems became just as important

Running a workshop, managing deliveries, and keeping everything moving at the same time makes one thing very clear: systems matter.

As production and delivery volumes grew, it became obvious that quoting and admin needed to be handled more efficiently. We’re a small team, and everyone here does more than one role — there isn’t someone sitting in an office all day answering emails or picking up the phone.

A lot of the time we’re in the workshop making planters, loading vans, or out on the road delivering them. That means we’re not always able to respond instantly, even though we know customers often just want a quick answer or a clear price.

That’s why we invested time in building better systems — instant online quotes for retail customers, and a dedicated trade dashboard for professionals who need pricing quickly and repeatedly. We’ve also spent time expanding our FAQs to cover many of the common questions we’re regularly asked.

Together, these tools allow people to get clear information, prices and answers at a time that suits them, even when we’re busy elsewhere in the workshop or out on the road.

They weren’t built to remove the human side of the business. They were built to support it — keeping things moving smoothly so the workshop can keep producing, deliveries can keep heading out, and customers aren’t left waiting for replies.

What a year like this teaches us

A year spent making and delivering planters across the UK teaches us a few things.

It reinforces the value of consistency. It shows how important real-world context is. And it highlights how small improvements to how the business runs can make a big difference over time.

Most of all, it underlines the importance of building a business where workshop, delivery and systems all support each other, rather than pulling in different directions.

Looking ahead

As we move into the next year, the focus remains the same. The workshop continues to do what it does best: making planters properly. Deliveries will keep heading out across the country. And behind the scenes, we’ll keep refining the systems that help everything fit together.

The miles will keep adding up, but so will the experience — and that feels like the right kind of growth.