Chamber Members The Branded Items Group (BIG) is a family owned promotional items company, which strives to deliver quality, value and great customer service.
Although the company is in its early days, BIG has been some years in the making. Director Steve Fairhurst, who also runs marketing agency Regenic, spent two years researching the promotional items industry before the BIG launch in January 2017.
Steve said: “We set up an online test business in 2015 supplying one product range of promotional items. This allowed us to research the market, test marketing and develop pricing strategies that could compete with biggest online companies.
“Most importantly it enabled us to understand what customers wanted from a promotional items supplier. The research was invaluable and an eye-opener.”
With the Chamber’s support BIG secured a grant from St Helens Council in 2017 towards the development of a new e-commerce website.
“The support we received from St Helens Chamber has been great. The new website was launched in November and we have also managed to trademark the BIG brand, but we still have a big job to do.
“We have access to about 10,000 promotional products, from personalised mugs and mousemats to branded tech products and cosmetics, so the online development of business is very challenging.
“In the space of 12 months, quarter by quarter, the turnover has dramatically increased. We are approved suppliers to the NHS, we are working with the Ministry of Defence and are exporting to Dublin” added Steve.
Driven by a great amount of enthusiasm and passion from owners Steve and Louise Fairhurst, customer service is at the heart of everything BIG does, with plans to focus in on customer service delivery in this locality and visit customers face-to-face.
Louise Fairhurst, Sales and Operations Manager for BIG, added: “We are fast becoming a world pre-occupied by online purchases, but companies are working with us because we engage with them and are consultative about what promotional items would work for them. The world is full of order processors, but we are not one of them.
“We have a really diverse customer base from small charities to public limited companies. In January this year, we secured our first export order to Ireland and have enquiries on the desk as far away as Qatar and Dubai.”
With ambitions to grow their brand and increase brand awareness, BIG have become proud sponsors of the Business Breakfast for the St Helens Chamber Business Fair, held at Haydock Park Racecourse, and local rugby team Saints.
Louise added “It is ironic we are taking orders from companies all over the UK and even internationally, when many businesses on our own doorstep don’t know we exist yet.
“We are trying to raise the profile locally and are delighted to be one of the sponsors of the St Helens Business Fair and are also involved at St Helens RLFC. Working and building relationships with companies locally is very important to us.”
To find out more about The Branded Items Group visit their website www.brandeditemsgroup.co.uk.
