Top Drawer's Product Pitch

Brand new for 2024, Top Drawer joined forces with IND!E to give 4 exhibitors the opportunity to pitch their products to the a panel of major retailers, to be in with the chance of winning a 1 week pop-up in a leading high street store.

In true Dragons Den-style, 4 lucky exhibitors will be shortlisted to perform a 5-10 minute pitch to our panel of judges live on the Retail Revealed stage on Monday 9th September at Top Drawer. Each exhibitor will have just a few vital minutes to pitch their products and convince our judges why they deserve to win a 1 week pop-up with a leading high street store!

Entries are now closed but see the shortlisted brands pitch live on Monday 9th September at 11:30am on the RetailRevealed stage.

Please note, if shortlisted you will be required onsite on Monday 9th September at the Retail Revealed stage from 11:15am for the live Product Pitch and then at 4pm that same day for the announcement of the winner. This is open to Top Drawer Exhibitors only.

Marianne Carter, Buyer,

Morleys Stores Group

Marianne has over 15 years of Buying and Product Development experience in the home and gifting sector, having worked for retailers such as Habitat and Laura Ashley. She moved to Morley Stores in 2022 and is now responsible for buying the Gifting and Stationery ranges for the group.

Jason Billings-Cray, Buyer,

John Lewis

Jason is a new Buyer for Cards and Collections at John Lewis. He has been in the role for 1 year, previously working on the Christmas Shop, where he was the Buyer for 3 years.

Jason has been at John Lewis for 8 years, starting on Curtains, he then moved to Cushions, followed by Christmas, and now Cards and Collections... there's a theme there, only C products so far! Jason studied History of Art BA and Contemporary Art Theory MA at University, studies that he loved, combining my interest in Art and all things visual with analytics and theoretical observations... This too is why he loves his job as a Buyer. Jason is very visual in his approach, attracted to great design and colour, combined with a desire to edit, curate and build the perfect assortment for the JL and Waitrose customers.

Matt Hopkins, Founder, IND!E

Matt Hopkins is a seasoned business leader with over 25 years of experience in successfully selling products to major retailers. He excels in identifying growth opportunities, crafting robust commercial strategies, and driving impactful sales and marketing initiatives.

A visionary entrepreneur and creative thinker, Matt has a proven track record of developing and scaling diverse business models. His expertise in licensed branding has led to collaborations with renowned brands such as Jamie Oliver, Laura Ashley, The Great British Bake Off, and Chef Tom Kerridge. Throughout his extensive career, Matt recognised a significant shift in consumer trends toward locally made products with compelling stories. This insight inspired him to establish IND!E, a fresh and dynamic force driving change in the retail industry. Under Matt’s leadership, IND!E has become a market leader, supporting both major retailers and the SME challenger brand community. The company operates hundreds of pop-up shops in major retail locations each year and has pioneered a unique shop-in-shop concept, offering a crucial stepping stone for SME brands.

Sara Allbright, Director & Co-Founder, Retail100

With more than 18 years of buying experience, Sara has specialised in brand relationships and growing small emerging brands into market leaders. Sara is also experienced in own label sourcing across multiple categories and countries.

Previous to Retail 100 Consulting, Sara spent 18 years at John Lewis & Partners, working in buying, predominantly in home and seasonal categories, spending the last 8 of those years leading Gift and Home fragrance buying.

Sara has a degree in Textile Design from the University of Birmingham. Sara’s retail experience has been bolstered by training at the Oxford university retail summer school and on the Gap partnerships Negotiation programme.

Rumble Cards

Rumble Cards is a vibrant and creative greeting cards company founded by Jess in 2015. The brand focuses on producing bright and colourful paper goods, collaborating with talented artists from around the world to create unique and beautiful stationery products. Over the years, we have evolved, refining our distinctive style and establishing a niche in the market by partnering with global artists to bring fresh designs to our collection. Product Highlight : The chosen product is from a series of playful and colourful birthday cards, each featuring an age from (1 through 5) that is personified with arms, legs, and a smiling face, complete with party hats. The cards are designed with a cheerful aesthetic, perfect for celebrating children's birthdays or marking special milestones with a fun, artistic touch.

POTR

POTR are inventors of the world's first flat pack, self-watering planter made from recycled materials which is designed to be posted conveniently through the letterbox, making it the perfect gift. Users enjoy hassle-free botanical care which fosters confidence in growing while minimizing waste. Winner of this year's Sustainable Product of the Year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the POTR products have been designed from the ground up with sustainability as the core requirement. Tackling sustainability holistically resulted in our low carbon falt pack design, using 95% less material than a traditional planter and working with waste materials destined for landfill. POTR was created in response to the high waste and carbon footprint associated with traditional products in the botanical industry, in particular the inefficiency associated with shipping large, heavy traditional planters. We take a data driven approach to design, creating products which tackle carbon footprint from the ground up.

One & Eight

Simply put, they make modern jewellery for today, tomorrow and every day. The brand don’t follow trends, instead, they use the highest quality materials to craft understated jewellery for brilliant women – jewellery that is ageless, timeless and made to be loved. Everyday beauty inspires Founder and Designer Susie to create purposeful, contemporary and playful collections. She mixes geometric shapes and delicate lines with unexpected materials, textures and finishes, resulting in simple pieces that are infinitely wearable. Jewellery is crafted from diverse materials – not only the finest silver and gold but porcelain and sea glass. They source everything as sustainably as possible, focusing on recycled and biodegradable materials. Then the final pieces come together here at our studio in Devon. We know jewellery gifts are the best kind of gifts that’s why our stylish simple pieces make perfect presents. Our beautiful packaging is designed and made with the same commitment to craft as our jewellery. Distinctive glass bottles and tins complement and showcase each piece. And they’re reusable and recyclable too.

Freya Niamh Design

Freya

The brand provides stylish, uplifting, colourful escapism with travel art and home decor.

Freya specialises in vibrant travel art prints illustrated by hand on her trusty iPad pro. Her colour palette was chosen to be as uplifting and FUN as possible, with the designs showing some of her most favourite places in a more saturated parallel universe.

Freya began sharing her creations on Instagram, trying out various styles from painting watercolour roses to illustrating digital portraits. However it wasn’t until her friend asked her to design her wedding stationery that Freya realised she wanted to do it full-time, as she loved the freedom and creativity illustrating stationery and prints had.

So Freya decided to get a job as an in-house graphic designer at a local company in York while I grew my audience, developed my brand, and got some more 'real-world' experience.

Eatsleepdoodle

eatsleepdoodle

eatsleepdoodle make fun, creative and educational textile gifts to colour in and personalise with included wash-out pens. Every gift has a practical use too – pencil cases for school, placemats for meals out, pillowcases, backpacks… The brand's hand illustrated designs range from butterflies and dinosaurs to world map and space exploration and each is backed up with additional learning material for children to research and discover. Sustainable, re-usable and super practical, everything is 100% cotton, washes clean in the machine and each textile gift comes complete with a set of our 10 super wash-out pens. They will be bringing our bestselling world map placemat to go to the pitch. Kids can colour in and learn about the world and its amazing creatures with this fun, double-sided placemat that features a map of the world, animals, sea creatures and lots more! There’s even space for kids to write their own discovery notes about the wildlife they spot! When ready for new discoveries, simply pop the placemat on a warm wash, the ink completely disappears and it’s ready for another colour-in trip around the world – colour and reuse endlessly!

IND!E Pop-Up was founded in 2014 with two goals in mind. The first was to help small businesses grow and scale by giving them a route into retail, and the second was to bring exciting, unique, local products to major retailers enabling them to offer something different alongside their big-name brands.

Since the brand's inception, we’ve generated an incredible £50 million in revenue for small businesses, shipped 3 million packages, managed 5,000 pop-up events and created an active network of 14,000 emerging brands. We’re responsible for hugely successful, regionally sourced in-store pop-ups throughout the UK.

And they are nowhere near finished!

IND!E know how difficult it is for emerging and growing brands to succeed in a world where mass-produced products are on almost every shelf in-store and online. While mass production has its advantages, it’s really important that creativity and innovation prevail to boost both local and global economies, keep traditional skills alive and satisfy consumers pursuing unique, meaningful and customised goods.

The company operates hundreds of pop-up shops in major retail locations each year and has pioneered a unique shop-in-shop concept, offering a crucial stepping stone for SME brands. Additionally, IND!E provides a comprehensive learning and resource hub and is set to launch its own e-commerce platform this year, further solidifying its role as an innovator in the retail landscape.

Overall, IND!E want to help create reasons to visit the high street.

Find Out More

Top Drawer's Product Pitch

Win a 1 week pop-up in with a top retailer!

Meet Our Judges