Member Article

Helmsley staircase manufacturer secures £60k contract after digital expansion

Helmsley-based design and manufacturing company Bisca has secured a £60k contract after a digital business support programme by Superfast North Yorkshire.

Bisca, which designs and builds staircases has been able to find new business and expand its operation with the support.

Director Richard McLane said: “Just weeks after completing the programme we were already reaping the benefits. A potential client found us though our LinkedIn web page, which we’d created following advice from the programme.

“As a result we are the named supplier for a £60k contract to design and build a staircase.”

“What the programme taught us was not how to get online – but how to have a comprehensive online presence. In this digital age that is your shop window.

“Like a lot of businesses, we already had a lot of the tools like social media but had no real idea how to use them. It was like having a big shop window but with the curtains closed.

“Doing the course was like being able to draw back those curtains. It taught us what to put in that virtual window display and how to make it attractive.”

“The changes we’ve made as a result of the advice and support have really started to make a difference and with the increased number of enquiries we have been able to take on a new member of staff.”

Work on the Superfast North Yorkshire project is well underway across the county with more than140,000 homes and businesses with access to fibre in addition to around 164,000 premises enabled as part of BT’s commercial rollout.

Business advisor Amanda Rowan said: “What Bisca’s experience shows is that being digitally savvy is not the preserve of hi-tech industry or big corporates, new online ways of working benefit everyone – especially when they are powered by faster fibre broadband.

“As the Superfast North Yorkshire rollout gathers pace the issue is becoming less about whether or not a small business has access to the right technology and tools and more about how best they can use them as they become more widely available.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .