St Kitt's Herbery - Case Study

The company, based in Camelford, was established in 2001 and has recently been considering ways of increasing its growth rate. It has an impressive range of customers including:

• Jamie Oliver’s 15 Cornwall
• The Slipway Hotel
• The Mill House
• The Old School Hotel & Restaurant
• Bears and Boxes
• Edgcumbe Hotel
• Watergate Bay
• Pendragon Country House
• Helsbury Park

How St Kitt’s Herbery found out about the Coaching for High Growth programme

St Kitt’s Herbery found out about the High Growth Coaching Programme following a cold call from one of Oxford Innovation’s coaches.

The Growth Challenge

The growth challenges of the company included a lack of knowledge of online marketing and potential for the use of web 2.0, online operations. They also required assistance with brand building and awareness raising, and acquisition and pitching to quality distributors.

How has Oxford Innovation’s Grow Cornwall Coaching Team Helped?

Members of the Oxford Innovation Grow Cornwall team assisted in helping the company to use the internet for growing their sales and customer base using a variety of social networking and web-based tools. For example, over a four day period the number of facebook fans recorded jumped from 23 to 67 following a campaign.

Marketing and branding workshops have been held to help the company successfully develop their brand and sales strategy.

What is happening now?

The company is continuing to experience growth and receive coaching support to enable the owners, Susan and Paul, to manage their growing business.

“Since we have been involved with the Grow Cornwall team and the Coaching for High Growth programme we have seen our overall sales increase for January to April 2010 increase by 41% over the same period in 2009. Early indications for this year are that this growth is set to continue. Our coach, Mike Jobson, has helped us to focus on particular aspects of our business that need attention and allowed us to develop achievable, sensible plans for future growth, including expanding our premises. Mike’s colleague, Laurence MacRory’s assistance in developing sales from our web site is proving invaluable. Our social media and viral marketing has resulted in a recent growth in sales on the website alone of 88% and continues to rise! We are looking forward to support in the run up to launching our new wholesale range for retailers in the next few months.”

CONTACT DETAILS:

Lead Coach/Mentor: Mike Jobson

Entrepreneur: Susan Johnson

www.stkittsherbery.co.uk