gap and realised that it was a niche market, so sat down with Pop
Up Products Limited who have been fantastic to us. We did a deal
to get the business off the ground and they’ve supported it 100
percent. They’d had a 10 year relationship with myself and knew I’d
worked hard for it.
“When North West Access & Sales was founded, the guys from
Pop Up Products knew that anything involving me and low level
access was going to work. We concentrated on the North West
as we are a North West based company. Just up to Stoke is our
furthest southern region and Carlisle is probably our furthest
north, including Manchester and a little bit of Leeds. Everywhere
surrounding is covered by us and we can deliver there.”
Product, Place, Price, Promotion
Within their first 9 months of trading, Ian and Mark realised
that they had doubled their stock, quickly expanding from just over
£200,000 worth of assets to half a million. Larger premises were
required. Their new premises is located within Aintree Racecourse
Business Park, owned by Dubai-based Orbit Developments. The
site is a prominent estate housing several blue chip companies
including Toolstation, Screwfix, DFS, B&Q and Wickes.
“It’s a really prestigious estate to be trading on. Orbit liked the
business plan. They liked our business model and they could see
the business was growing. They allowed us to move in and that
was 13 months ago now, in January 2014.”
North West Access & Sales are moving again and this time, they
are moving two doors down as the business expands even further.
The current premises is just under 4,000 square feet in size and the
new one measures 6,500 square feet.
“When you look at the ‘4 P’s,’ Product, Place, Price and
Promotion’, it is imperative to find the right location. My only
advice to anyone looking to either move or start up a business is if
you’ve got the right price in the wrong location, the business won’t
take off. If you’ve got the right location but the wrong product,
the business won’t take off. You need have all those boxes ticked.
We’ve got the right product and we’ve definitely got the right
location because we’ve trebled in size. When we viewed the site,
there were two premises that we could have moved into; either
this or one opposite. The opposite was slightly bigger but not
much more expensive in rent, so you ask yourself, ‘why is this the
same price?’ It is because the premises is opposite everyone else.
The other premises’ are next to one another, so as customers walk
out, the first thing they see is us, and that’s why we made the right
choice.”
On the right track
North West Access & Sales is a recognised brand within the
North West of England. While they do not claim to be market
leaders in the North West just yet, Ian believes they are definitely
on the right track.
“We’re the only business we know that concentrates on the low
level access. Everyone you speak to about us says we’ve got a great
business and a fantastic business model. A few of the big PLCs
that looked at us probably thought we weren’t going to do much.
2 years on, I’d say we were sending out a major statement about
“We’ve got the right product
and we’ve definitely got the
right location because we’ve
trebled in size”
HSE INTERNATIONAL
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