Despite a challenging year for all industries, our national client team have been busier than ever, managing existing office plant schemes, bringing in new work from existing clients and new business alike. As a result, we have been busy evolving our operations, to ensure we are meeting all our customers’ needs.
New team members
As our business continues to grow, so has our team. Newest to the Urban Planters National Team fold are Rowena Corcoran, Anne-Marie Atkinson and Charlotte Bellingham.
Rowena Corcoran 
Anne-Marie Atkinson
Rowena has taken on a key role of Sales Admin Manager, overseeing a new, streamlined process of working for the team and supporting the admin team to create more streamlined and efficient working practices for the entire National Sales team. Rowena has extensive experience in account management and after-sales care from her previous roles and is enjoying her new busy and varied role at Urban.
Anne-Marie joins our busy but enthusiastic National Accounts team, managing existing contracts as well as new business. A self-described people person, she loves meeting clients and getting involved in the design process of each scheme. Anne-Marie has a broad range of experience with some of our largest interior landscaping competitors.
She joined us after asking her industry contracts which business is considered good to work for as well as being a good fit for her skills. Urban Planters was repeatedly mentioned, so she got in touch with Urban Planters’ National Accounts Director, Thomas Palfreyman and the rest is history!
Bethany Fisher 
Charlotte Bellingham
Charlotte, meanwhile, will oversee existing client liaison, ensuring their requirements are dealt with efficiently and effectively, working closely with the rest of the National Accounts team. Before coming to Urban, she worked for a greetings card company in Loughborough, managing client accounts.
‘My last job allowed me not only to put my design degree into practise, but also to learn how to keep clients happy by finding the right solution to a wide range of issues.
‘I loved my old job but over time I realised I needed a new challenge. My new role at Urban Planters will allow me to apply all I have learned to a broader range of clients, with a focus on building and maintaining our existing relationships . With my design hat on, I’m also enjoying learning more about the varied world of planting schemes.’
We have also welcomed Bethany Fisher back from maternity leave. Bethany has hit the ground running, looking after Christmas: an extremely busy business area for us this time of year!
Thomas said: ‘In an unusual and very challenging year, we are so pleased to be in a position to expand our team and develop our team office.
‘It is a reflection of how our hard work and quality service really resonates with our national clients and we hope we can continue not just to weather this current storm but also to carry on going from strength to strength.
‘As people are starting to return to the workplace, we’re seeing a renewed enthusiasm for indoor and outdoor plant products to create a welcoming and nurturing environment.
‘Recent research by employee experience experts Leesman found that the offices employees want to come back to post-pandemic, are those that offered outstanding employee experience when they left them in March.
‘We see the look and feel of a workspace as playing a huge part in this positive. So, we hope that clients will recognise that employees will be happier to come back to the office if it looks attractive and welcoming, with design features such as office plants that promote wellbeing and increases productivity.’
Introducing The Plant House
While we all had to work from home earlier this year, it was a perfect opportunity to expand our Derbyshire hub, extending and refurbishing our existing offices to accommodate our growing and busy team.
The Matlock-based office houses the Derbyshire, regional support and National Sales teams and can now accommodate up to 25 staff members.
It would not be an Urban Planters office without a fine selection of office planting: we have two live green walls, one internal and one external, as well as a variety of office plant displays, hand sanitising stations with integrated planters and the pioneering Naava Active Air plant screen in the National Sales office.
Naming the office was put to the vote, and the far and away winner was the simply perfect ‘The Plant House’, the brainchild of Helen Bushnell, who has been with us for almost 20 years.