Grampian Fasteners

As a successful £2m turnover company distributing industrial fasteners to local businesses in the oil and gas, paper, pharmaceutical and farming sectors, Grampian Fasteners had experienced steady growth during its 14 years in business, expanding year on year into larger premises and employing more staff as demand grew for its products. A change in management in 2005 provided the catalyst for a fresh look at the business which, although benefiting from a relatively buoyant marketplace, needed to develop a more proactive sales and marketing approach to ensure its continued growth.

Gary Henderson, Managing Director, explains: "We knew at that time that we had become very reactive to the marketplace. In the early days we had to go out and sell, but as the business grew, we had so much business coming in that our proactive selling all but ground to a halt.

"It is easy to become complacent in a burgeoning marketplace and we realised that to sustain and enhance our growth over the coming years, we needed to address our approach to sales and marketing. We heard about Business Gateway’s Marketing Advance Programme (MAP), which sounded like just the sort of thing we were looking for, so we approached them and were appointed a client manager to take us through the programme.

"Over the following few months we had a series of MAP sessions covering various aspects of marketing and culminating in the creation of an 18 month marketing plan for the business. Our Business Gateway client manager was excellent and, coming from an industrial background, he had a good grasp of the sort of business we were in and what we were trying to achieve.

"He put in an effort to ensure we understood the importance of keeping up with the MAP programme in order to get the most out of it and encouraged us every step of the way. He was never pushy or directly influenced our management decision. He did a very good job of making sure we had as much information as possible for us to make informed decisions."

Grampian Fasteners is currently implementing its marketing plan, focusing on turning its sales team into a proactive, forward-looking force and putting in place processes to facilitate an active sales drive. The company is also revising its website, having expanded its product range over the last couple of years to include hand tools and safety footwear.

"Working through the MAP programme we identified a much bigger market for our service throughout the UK," commented Gary, "and the expansion of our product range and revamping the website are a direct result of that. We are planning a major marketing drive into this wider market.

"Having completed the MAP programme, we also realised that we need to become certified to the ISO 9001 quality standard and we are working towards that with the help of Business Gateway. They are also helping us achieve Investor in People status.

"We continually receive advice on services available from Business Gateway, Scottish Enterprise and other organisations that are relative to our position. We took part in the Shell STEP scheme recently in order to fast track some work that was a priority for use. Although our Business Gateway client manager has nothing to gain from our business, it feels as though he is genuinely interested in it being more successful."

The Business Gateway service in Grampian is delivered by Enterprise North East Trust. For more information telephone 01224 289725 or visit www.bgateway.com.

For more information about Grampian Fasteners Limited visit www.grampianfasteners.com or call 01224 772777.

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For further information contact:

Lyndsay Aitken
Tricker PR
9 Victoria Street
Aberdeen
Telephone 01224 646491
Direct Line 01224 654086
Mobile 07780 680751
Email laitken@trickerpr.com