“At Driffield Post Office we have dealt with John for approximately 4 years. He is a very reliable, knowledgeable and experienced agent, who knows what to recommend, and what not to suggest, for our shop. John always works closely with us with our customers in mind.  If any stock has not sold as expected, John has always resolved this and arranged replacement stock or more effective displays, all of which has greatly improved the outcome for his ranges.  John has introduced us to several brands including Hot Tomato, The Fragrance House, Emma Ball and Orange Tree Toys, all of which have been very successful additions.

I cannot recommend John highly enough. He knows his stuff and will always put his retailers first.”

“We have consistently dealt with John Appleson for over three years and can only describe his service as excellent, together with good, impartial advice. He has a good eye for the retail market. We started off with a couple of his brands; Thomas Joseph and more recently Emma Ball, both of which have done exceptionally well. Over time we intend to increase our offering from John’s agencies as they are a good fit within our gifting range. John is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic in striving to bring the correct offering to your business, and he’s proved his agency to be excellent in providing the correct gift offering for our garden centre.”

“We've absolutely loved working with John over the past couple of years. He is a joy to work with and a real breath of fresh air! He's faster than lightning at replying to our queries and the brands he represents are lovely quality that fly off our shelves. We currently stock the stunning Hot Tomato jewellery and his gorgeous Wellness Candle & Diffuser Range, both of which we're constantly reordering just to keep up with the demand!

Seriously, if there were more agents like John, the gift world would be a much brighter (and better stocked) place!!”

“A chance meeting a couple of years ago with John changed our gifting range forever. I have always found John to be honest and extremely helpful when discussing and suggesting new products to the store. We introduced such brands as Emma Ball with amazing success, The Herdy Company and now Hot Tomato Jewellery ranges.

If you are looking for an experienced and knowledgeable Giftware Agent, then John is the person to contact.”

“I have been working with John as a valued agent for over 3 years now and he is my contact for 6 different brands:
Wellness, Potters Crouch & Betty Hula (from The Fragrance House) Herdy, Hot Tomato jewellery and, very recently, Ivy & Twine.

John always comes to see me personally at my convenience which I really appreciate, and he guides me towards the best sellers and the most popular products. I'm extremely happy with all the brands that John has recommended and trust his knowledge and experience completely. He is always on hand if I need speedy communication with the various companies and I truly feel I get excellent service because of him.

I've had a lot of success with his brands so can highly recommend him!”

“I greatly valued John’s experience and recommendations when I bought Dot’s Place two and a half years ago. During that time, we have stocked at least four of John’s strong selling brands. Being new to buying, his support and advice was, and continues to be, invaluable. I much prefer to deal with freelance agents rather than employed company reps; they are so much more honest about best-sellers and seasonal differences.

I can't thank John enough for persuading me to take on ‘Ivy and Twine.’ This brand has been a real winner!”

"We have dealt with John for several years now with very successful ranges such as Emma Ball, Herdy and more recently Orange Tree Toys. John is always so helpful, responsive and is great at recommending the best-selling products."

“I have worked with John for over 6 years. He offers lots of different products from the complementary list of ranges he represents. He always represents really good companies, and his service is second to none.

John is exceptional in offering the very best products for your company. His workmanship is excellent too; always up to speed in getting data over and making sure his customers are happy.”

“We have worked with John and Potters Crouch Candles for over six years, always a pleasure to see him and he’s at the end of the phone if we need him, one of our most valued partnerships!”

“Appleson Agencies is a company we trust to bring us the right products to market.

John is constantly looking for new opportunities and new products to present to us which, in turn, gives us the opportunity to offer these new products to our own customers. He is THE complete sales agent.”

“John is extremely knowledgeable and professional. It’s always a pleasure when he visits; he supports us with merchandising solutions, managing stock levels and purchase orders and he’s always there to help with new product suggestions etc.

Over this last year we discussed potential new products within an existing supplier; he acted on our suggestions ensuring the new products were developed, manufactured, supplied and available for sale.”

“When John first cold-called into my little shop in January 2023, we were struggling with what new stock we could introduce to the town. He was full of inspiration and ideas and introduced us to the Thomas Joseph range and also Potters Crouch Candles. Wow he was so right ! His knowledge of the stock and what sells well in certain areas was amazing; he helped us move our shop to the next level. John is friendly and professional and when the storms hit in October last year and we were flooded out, he reached out to his suppliers and took all the stress out of a dreadful situation for our store. John is not just a sales agent, he is a total star and a pleasure to do business with !”

“We have been lucky enough to work with John Appleson for at least 14 years with various types of gifts he has presented to us. In all our business with John, we have found him to be extremely professional, always at the end of the phone if a problem arises and he makes sure he gets to know his customers and which products will sell for them.

Our ranges with John at the moment are Thomas Joseph, Jardinopia and Ivy & Twine and we have also had other companies of his throughout the years. He is a lovely gentleman.”

“We order numerous products from John Appleson and he is a joy to work with.

He is professional and always willing to help us with new products or new orders. We wish all agents were like John!”

“I have worked with John for almost 25 years and along the way purchased a fabulous, successfully commercial, niche range of products from him for both my small independent lifestyle business and more latterly the Garden Centres I am involved with.

I think the fact we still work together after all the changes in retail over that time is testimony to John’s tenacity and ability to spot and represent great products!”

"We've been working with John for almost 5 years, during which time he has introduced us to new suppliers and products, and provided quick, efficient service and responses to any enquiries. On the rare occasion that an issue arises, John has dealt with these quickly and efficiently, resulting in such issues being resolved for us.

The product lines introduced have all done well, and have grown in popularity over the years, creating excitement and interest from our customers (as well as our staff!), and contributing to revenue in a positive way.“

“John has been great since we started working with him last year. Always has samples available or, if not, he will get them sent in ASAP. He’s very knowledgeable on the products he carries and is very fair with his opinion on how well they will sell for us.”

‘I have worked with John for over 5 years across a number of ranges. He represents high quality companies and is always enthusiastic, organised and positive. He’s a pleasure to deal with.’

“I have been dealing with John for over 30 years. I believe we started with his range of wooden pens in the 1980’s and we have had something from him continuously ever since.

We purchase from three different companies John represents and his regular visits makes the top-ups very easy for us.”