- 2003
Gudrum classics was founded in 2003 by Andrew Leadley. Andrew’s career to that point had included spending several years working in garden accessory and consumable product supply to major retail and wholesale customers throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. In 2002 it appeared that the internet was beginning to emerge as a potential retailing opportunity which Andrew decided to try to develop into an online garden-centre style presentation.
2003 - 2006
Launched in 2003, Gardenchic was created and began trading over a broader range of garden products. As Simply log cabins was dedicated to Log cabins, summerhouses and garden buildings Garden chic provided an excellent platform to provide customers with products such as garden furniture, BBQ’s and other smaller faster moving stock products.
2006 - 2007
Launched in 2006, Simply Log Cabins was created and began trading with great success. Andrew Leadley imported and distributed high volumes of quality log cabins manufactured in Belgium and Holland.
2007 - 2010
Between 2007 - 2010 Simply Log Cabins transitioned to importing its Log cabins and summerhouses from Belgium and Holland to Eastern Europe. Countries such as Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania came to the fore as a region of high quality and modern manufacturing. The reason behind the transition was simply down to timber quality, the Eastern European countries have relatively short, cooler summers with cold winters which provides a better climate for timber to grow slowly and in consequence is much denser than timber grown in other areas.
2008
In 2008 Simply Log Cabins started importing full loads of log cabins directly from the factories in Eastern Europe, this was something not a lot of other retailers could do and in turn helped grow the business substantially. With year-on-year growth Gudrum classics moved its offices to Newark Beacon due to expansion and investment in its team and website platforms.
2012
Gudrum invested in better warehousing and moved its distribution warehouse from Lincoln to Northampton, for increased space and to offer customers a better delivery service thanks to it's location on the M1 Corridor.
2014
As well as providing better delivery, Gardenchic’s website was overhauled and moved to Visualsoft’s ecommerce platform, where it was able to provide a more user-friendly shopping platform that would be future proof over the years to come.
2018
After years of continued growth in sales Simply Log Cabins was to follow and had a major website upgrade transferring over to Visualsoft’s platform after the success seen from Gardenchic’s new website. With the improved usability across the platforms this gave both sites a great foundation to adapt and provide the best service in the fast-growing ecommerce shopping market.
2021 - 2022
With 2020-21 being a year of many unseeable altercations, Gardenchic and Simply Log Cabins have seen huge demand like many other businesses and continues to invest in growth. The team has doubled over the past year, with amazing talent and experience joining the business to help it grow and adapt to new shopping trends across the online retail industry.
2022
Gudrum branches out into B2B services including fully managed services for retailer's websites, as well as becoming a supplier of home & garden products for other businesses for both online retailers & physical stores.
The team successfully launch a 3rd website for Gudrum. Living Chic launches on a new Magento 2 platform, focusing on home ranges, Living Chic will offer something new and exciting for customers as well as filling a key product range for the business.
2023 - Present
As Gudrum progresses into 2023 with new website platforms and increased expansion to product ranges, Plimsoll business analysis rates the business "STRONG", ranking the business in the top 2100 UK online shopping businesses, indicating strength and security.
