Member Article

Online overhaul fast-tracks Teesside workwear firm’s scaleup pursuit

Teesside workwear firm M.I. Supplies has reported a 240% increase in online sales, after overhauling its website.

Based at Teesside Industrial Estate, in Thornaby, the business worked with Stockton e-Commerce firm Visualsoft to revamp its online offering.

Within the first two months of the relaunch sales have grown from an average of £16,000 a month to more than £55,000 a month.

MD Alex Ingham has now set the firm a target of achieving £2m in online sales alone over the next 12 months which, combined with the company’s current contracts, would almost double M.I. Supplies’ total turnover to more than £4m in 2017.

The business has already taken on website developer Neil Shepherd to look after the new site, which now boasts more than 140,000 different workwear products from well-known brands such as Caterpillar and major European workwear suppliers Helly Hansen and Mascot.

Ingham explained: “Our old website was averaging around 12 to 15 orders a day and £16,000-a-month in sales, but already with the new site we’re averaging around 30 to 35 orders a day, which is typically generating £55,000-a-month.

“So we’ve already increased orders by three-fold and, when you break the numbers down, I don’t think it’s unfeasible to increase that to 100 orders a day.

“Our average order is £50 and our online customers would be people like self-employed builders, joiners, plumbers and electricians from all over the UK.

“We only need to do an extra four orders an hour – or one extra order every 15 minutes – and when you look at it that way, I think it’s achievable.”

M.I. Supplies has experienced year-on-year growth every year for the last decade and has already achieved this in 2016. Ingham is hoping to grow the business by taking on new employees in 2017.

He said: “I will aim to take more staff on to deal with that kind of growth.

“We currently have five staff picking and packing in the warehouse, so if we’re looking to go from 12 orders a day to 100, then clearly we’ll need to bring more in to cope with that extra workload.

“We’re hoping the website will create new staff opportunities.”

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →