Lylalife which markets incontinence products direct to consumers has secured a £100,000 investment from the North East Fund which will enable it to expand. The business sells online primarily on a subscription basis and has 5000 active customers. Its plans include national advertising with the goal of recruiting ten times more customers over the next two years and creating 20 new jobs.
The company, founded 18 months ago by directors with experience in the incontinence products sector, primarily uses Facebook advertising but is now planning a major radio and TV advertising campaign.
Managing director Wayne Dobson says: “The products we supply are quite expensive to buy in the shops and experience shows that the quality can be variable, while some customers can naturally feel a bit awkward about being seen taking them off supermarket shelves.
“My existing commercial relationships with manufacturers in the sector meant we were able to source quality products very economically and allowed us to assemble a best-in-class initial product range.
“Our expert eCommerce marketing team then developed our website and digital marketing strategy to see if we might be able to create a business. Customer response has been extremely encouraging and the challenge for us now is to scale up our operations, increase awareness of our brand and make sure that the maximum number of potential customers understand the quality and scope of what we offer.
“Our new year marketing push is the starting point for this drive and we’re confident that we’ll be able to increase our customer base tenfold over the next two years, with the added benefit of new North East jobs set to follow as we grow.
“Being able to access capital from within the region was an important factor for us. When we looked at what was available here, the scalable model offered by NEL was the obvious choice and we’re already considering how we might use further growth investments in the future.”
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