When Starke Ayres, a global supplier of premium vegetable, flower and lawn seed varieties, approached Flow for a new website, we couldn’t wait to get involved.
Stark Ayres, which was founded in South Africa in 1896, has a footprint in more than 60 countries across five continents. Its goal is to help end hunger by developing superior-quality seeds that maximise yields for farmers.
Starke Ayres expressed to Flow that its old website was dated and in need of an update and fresh look that would align with its strategy and connect with suppliers and customers across its global footprint. It asked Flow to deliver a simple website that would hook web users at first glance, and be easy to navigate on all devices.
“Our brief was for Flow to create a website that reflects our transition from a South African company to a global company based in South Africa. We wanted to showcase our variety of products with a more contemporary feel,” says Starke Ayres chief operating officer Gregory Cleeve-Edwards.
“Flow Communications was absolutely amazing and gave us a great experience with a diverse and multitalented team that delivered a great website!”
Building a website is always a team effort at Flow – every department gets involved, with project managers, web developers, content creators and designers all working together to bring the final project to life.
To develop the large and highly integrated website needed to house all Starke Ayres’s products and various country sites, Flow used Craft CMS. Its versatility allows developers to customise sites according to numerous client requirements, incorporating various elements including content, design, functionality and scalability.
The result is an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly site that manages to showcase depth through diverse content fields and categories, with content across multiple related sites being managed from a single Craft interface.
“The fresh new design facilitates a much better user experience to find the products the user is looking for. The new website also allows for a clear separation of content and products offered in different countries,” says Flow web developer Vashen Mooniyen.
“The core short-term improvement is the ease with which you can find products and navigate around the site.”
Flow’s head of project management, Gail Cameron, adds, “The Starke Ayres website project was such a fun project to work on, starting with a tour of their seed research and packing facility, to coming up with the best solution to showcase a wide variety of products and subproducts.
“The team at Starke Ayres were great partners on the journey, and the final product speaks for itself.”
Flow is proud to have partnered with Starke Ayres to produce such a strong website, playing a small role in the company’s 120-year history.