Norfolk-based Eastern Storage Equipment (ESE), a manufacturer,
supplier, and installer of industrial storage and
materials-handling equipment, is seeing the fruits of last year’s
£100,000 investment with sales up 33 percent to £3
million in 2010.
ESE attributes much of its success to its website, which
relaunched in February 2010. “Without the internet we could
have been struggling just like our competitors, instead of seeing
a massive growth in sales that shows no signs of tailing
off,” says managing director Simon Francis.
The company also debuted a print catalogue last year and is
preparing for the mailing of the 2011 edition. ESE’s new 400-page
catalogue, containing thousands of new products and more special
offers, is due to be despatched to customers at the beginning of
February. At the same time, ESE will update its website to
include an interactive e-catalogue edition.
During the year, ESE also made back-office improvements,
including refurbishing and extending its offices to improve staff
facilities. Further, it replaced servers, updated software and
installed new systems to enable it to cope with the increase in
enquiries and orders. “In the last four or five
months,” says Francis, the business “has been
handling more than double the enquiries and orders handled during
the same time period in 2009”.
Because of this, Francis is confident for the year ahead. In
2010, ESE employed four new members of staff and took on two more
new recruits in January 2011, taking the total number of
employees to 19. This year, Francis is looking to hire at least
two more people as the business enters its next phase of growth,
with plans to reach £5 million in sales within the next
three years.
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