Client Business Support

Branduin designed and implemented a sales and marketing plan for Hansons.

Branduin devised a telephone survey to raise Hansons’ profile among buyers of corporate catering services and to identify what buyers want from a catering supplier. The survey identified the key factors that buyers took into account when choosing their supplier and this information was used to sharpen Hansons marketing messages and ensure they reflected customer needs.

Branduin then created a database of 300 catering buyers within Hanson’s target area and has since provided sales and telemarketing training to renable Hansons to followu-up customers in-house.

The Result – The telephone survey produced 18 leads, the majority of which have now become customers. The new database has enable Hansons to introduce regular direct mail and telemarketing campaigns which are supported by Branduin and this has led to new customers being gained on a quarterly basis.

“Since we started working with Branduin to develop regular sales and marketing activity, sales have rocketed and we often gain new customers for less than the cost of a stamp!” – Sarah Thorp, Hansons the Caterers.

This enabled Signcraft to identify areas of improvement that could deliver competitive advantage.

Branduin Business Support then helped Signcraft develop an online promotional plan to enhance the website’s ability to attract visitors through search engines and to increase awareness of the website through social media activity.

The result – Signcraft hit Number 1 spot on page 1 of Google within 3 months!

“We have worked with Branduin for over 10 years and their advice and suport has helped us to significantly increase our turnover and our profitability. This help with our website has increased the number of leads we gain through this channel” Bob Colwell, Signcraft.

The first stage was to redefine the company’s Mission and agree a Vision Statement. Long term goals were agreed for revenue targets, new markets, staff development, systems, processes and infrastructure. Management workshops were run to develop strategies, short term objectives and actions.

The company tackled a new market opportunity achieving significant success, IT solutions were implemented improving staff efficiency, and the strategic plan was used as a sales and marketing tool.

The Result – The company achieved revenue growth from circa £6m to circa £18m. The company was restructured, new senior staff employed and internal managers promoted.

“Roy O’Neil facilitated the executive team through the strategic planning process. His analytical and facilitation skills, combined with his inclusive process led to a realistic plan that we all believed in. The results exceeded our expectations.” – Darren Allery, MCL

We organised a cross functional and cross organisational workshop with sales, marketing, support and strategic partners. The group assessed the current situation and identified specific issues to be addressed, and new product and market opportunities. These were prioritised and new product development, sales and marketing tools and training requirements were identified.

The group took ownership for implementation, and action plans were agreed combining the efforts of the internal resources and the strategic partner.

The result – the sales team went on to achieve their targets.

“Roy’s facilitation skills and the team-planning process enabled us to identify the real issues and develop a plan to address them. The process created a team-working environment and the implementation of the plan resulted in a complete turnaround in our sales performance.” –  Mike Harper, Sales Director

Since the successful conclusion of the bid Branduin Business Support have carried out buyer research on SAE’s behalf which enabled them to sharpen their marketing messages and generate a significant number of new prospects.

Branduin Business Support now meet SAE on a monthly basis to act as a sounding board for ideas and to provide confidential advice to the Managing Director.

The result – a significant increase in new customers, turnover and profitability.

“Branduin has become our first port of call if we need any business advice or support – they offer us a reliable service which has really made a difference.” Richard Bousfield, SAE Logistics.

Given increasing competition from the Far East Branduin Business Support were engaged to carry out research to identify the key attributes that UK button buyers looked for in their suppliers.

62% of buyers agreed to participate in the survey and 75% of those agreed to receive an approach from James Grove.

James Grove were then able to approach individual buyers with full knowledge of their needs and were able to shape their marketing messages dependent on those needs.

The Result – new orders were gained as a direct result of this process – a number of them won from suppliers in Far East.

“Branduin helped us to gain a much clearer understanding of our clients’ needs which enabled us to increase sales to existing clients and engage more successfully with prospects” Sue Witcutt, James Grove

Originally purely a retail business, with sales made at farmers’ markets across south-east London, they made their pasta in their kitchen. It was then dried in the corner of their lounge.  They wanted to move the business forward, to look at other opportunities to grow.

Nigel Davey, a Business Advisor within Branduin’s South London team, worked with them over a period of two months. The time was spent developing a programme of activity to move them from a retail to a wholesale- business.

The company moved into a commercial kitchen. This allowed more cost-effective production and to separate their home and work lives.

Much of the work was around communicating the locality of ingredients (everything came from the UK) and their quality. This was done through changes to the website, to their outbound communication and simply by talking to the right people.

The Result – Casa Grande is now totally organic and has increased total revenue by more than 20% in a year.  The emphasis has moved from 100% retail to 100% wholesale. They now supply dozens of independent food retailers, one organic chain and are working with two distributors. Conversations with Harrods and Waitrose are also taking place.

“The support and coaching Casa Grande received from Nigel was fundamental to influence positively our decision making process , we realized  that our growth depended on being based in a  commercial kitchen , which would allow us to supply our products to  other business as well as the direct consumer. This was an essential part of our growth plan, which led us to raise the finance to make the necessary changes” – Derek Curtis, Director