Dances With Rocks…
Stuart Dunne And His URocks Band From Down Under Get Serious About The North American Water Gardening Market This Year
Some people call him the U-Rock Star, while others call him the U-Rock Bloke. He blushes at the first, chuckles at the second, but in the end he prefers to be called Stuart, which is what his wife Talei and his friends from down under call him. The full name you see is Stuart Dunne. He’s from Sydney, Australia, and for the past decade he’s cultivated an intimate relationship with Mother Nature by meticulously perfecting the art of making rocks…artificially.
Not only has Dunne perfected the art of making rocks artificially, but he’s also done an enviable job of selling these stone sculpted masterpieces, with sales for the past several years averaging over six million dollars annually. His Sydney based company, Universal Rocks, Inc., has been producing and distributing these magnificent, one of a kind, hand made works of art around the Pacific Rim for almost a decade. They’re so well crafted that, unless you whack your knuckles on the polyurethane from which they’re made, it’s almost impossible to distinguish the artificial from the real McCoy.
Dunne Decided to Test the North American Market
During that time the demand for Dunne’s products grew enough that he decided to test its potential in North America, which he did for most of the 2006 season. The results of that test market were so encouraging that he’s decided to roll out the entire program through a network of hand picked distributors who cater to upscale garden centers, water garden specialty shops, and the pool and spa markets where Dunne’s products have historically experienced the most success in Australia.
In Dunne’s own words, “We decided to take what we learned in 2006, create a distribution plan, and roll out a full blown Universal Rocks program across North America in 2007. We began by introducing the line at the annual Las Vegas Pool and Spa show in late November, and we had a fantastic show. Since then, things have grown so quickly that my wife and I are making plans to move to the US in early July in order to give our distributors all the support they need to succeed in North America,” said Dunne. “Make no mistake about it mate…we’re very serious about growing the North American market to its full potential.”
From the West Coast
Dunn’s plans to move to the US doesn’t surprise Dave Drew, an ex-airline pilot turned distributor (Oz Rocks, Inc.) from Puyallup, WA who will cover the west coast on behalf of Universal Rocks. “The response that we’ve had to these products has been nothing short of amazing. However, when you sit a U Rocks product alongside the competition, it’s not hard to see why this market has taken such a liking to our line. We’re forecasting a banner year in 2007, and Stuart’s stateside presence will be a tremendous help when it comes to promoting the URocks line,” Drew said
To the East Coast
On the east coast Harold Dambly of Dambly’s Nursery in Berlin, NJ has been in the green industry since 1979 when he and his wife opened their first store on a one acre lot outside of town. They’ve grown and moved to bigger and better facilities several times since then, and now they occupy a ten acre site with 86,000 square feet of retail space under roof.
“Being in the market for that length of time allows me a unique perspective when new products are introduced to this market,” Dambly said. “But I’ve been handling the line now for well over a year and I can tell you that, despite the fact that they’re the most expensive artificial rocks on the market, they’re also the most realistic looking artificial rocks I’ve ever seen. And we have plenty of customers who are happy to pay for the high quality products that Stuart Dunne produces.”
Display Ponds are Crucial
But like anyone who’s winning in the water garden market, Dambly is big on displaying his products correctly. “When we brought Universal Rocks in we immediately installed a dozen display ponds, all naturally landscaped so that customers can see exactly what it will look like in their own back yard. It’s not unusual to have a customer point at one of our twelve display ponds and say ‘That’s what I want in my back yard.’ Displayed right,” Dambly said, “the Universal products sell themselves.”
Avoiding the Chiropractor
Dambly handles both real rock ponds and artificial rock ponds. And when choosing between real rocks and artificial rocks, it’s often the lightness of the latter that wins the day. “We have customers who are astounded at how light Universal Rocks are,” Dambly said. “And because they’re so light, installing a U Rocks Pond takes less than half the time it takes to install a real rocks pond. And you can avoid the conventional visit to the chiropractor after doing it,” he quipped. “We expect to see interest in Universal Rocks grow stronger throughout the 2007 season,” Dambly added.
U Rocks in the Sydney Wildlife World
While North America is being introduced to the URocks line, they are still very popular in Dunne’s own backyard, as demonstrated by their inclusion in a new exhibit recently introduced by Sydney Wildlife World. Chris McDonald, SWW’s Aquarium Supervisor and Exhibit Designer, said his search for the right rock took him around the globe, until he finally found the solution waiting within a stone’s throw of his own office.
“We had a good budget and we could afford to do the job right,” McDonald said, “so we made a serious study of all the possibilities. To our delight we discovered that Universal Rocks right here in Sydney had the most realistic product on the market. Stuart’s creations are amazingly detailed, right down to the nooks and crannies. It’s almost impossible to distinguish between his hand made rocks and Mother Nature’s, which is exactly the effect we wanted to achieve in this exhibit,” said McDonald.
So if you’re a water gardening pro who wants to keep up on the latest in the industry, keep an eye peeled for the Rock Bloke for down under. Stuart Dunne and his URock band are destined to play a significant role in the 2007 market.
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