A small Tyneside agency is poised for rapid growth after creating a marketing tool which is attracting interest from international retail giants.
Hunter Johnstone has grown into a successful £1m turnover marketing firm in the decade since it was formed by Jay Johnstone and Neil Hunter and worked up contracts with large firms such as North East holiday park firm Parkdean and Metro operator Nexus.
But it expects a dramatic expansion with its invention of an internet-based tool to allow franchisees of large companies to customise marketing materials for use in their stores, order them and update franchisees on marketing campaigns.
The firm, which currently employs 14, is already building on a deal with the world’s biggest fast food chain, Subway, which plans to roll it out globally and has won a series of venture capital investments. Mr Johnstone said: “It wasn’t supposed to be a big product at first, just a way of relieving pressure on staff when they had to keep reproducing marketing material. We found it could be expanded and it can help save a lot of time and money right the way up the marketing side of a large company.
“It’s taken a lot of effort and there’s still a way to go to test all the new elements. Every time someone comes up and says have you thought of this we have to do some more tests. But it’s going well.
“When I first did the projections I thought that’s ridiculous. I can’t tell my bank manager that. But I will be very happy if we are doing £5m in three years.”
Subway is already using the system in around 1,000 stores across the UK and Europe and is looking to double that shortly and roll it much further across its 32,690 store operation in 91 countries.
And Hunter Johnstone is already seeing interest from other large retailers looking to take advantage of the savings and efficiencies the system can bring.
The firm has welcomed investment of £86,000 from Business Link, £50,000 from One North East and most recently £120,000 from Newcastle-based NEL Fund Managers.
Lindsey Grieves, portfolio executive at NEL Fund Managers, adds: “The commercial potential of this system is clearly extremely encouraging, and the Hunter Johnstone management team demonstrated to us that they have the strategic vision and tactical know-how to realise it through their new digital division.”
Source: the Journal 21 May 2010
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