Our Story
About Supplyant
Let's share a little part of the Supplyant story so far. We still consider ourselves a startup organisation even after nearly 12 years of growth.
In a nutshell, our story started back when I went to art school and my brother was deep in his mechanical engineering course in Sunderland. Unlike me, he always had a passion for solving people's problems. He would spot a problem and in a few days come up with a solution to make it go away. On the other hand, my specialty was identifying opportunities for people to solve.
It was a perfect partnership.
How It All Started
In 1998 we teamed up for the first time, this led to working on websites and the growth that was starting with selling online, and we loved it.
Since I had a background in marketing, I had people coming to me asking about websites. This was 1998, and nobody really knew where to turn to make the most from this new technology and how to utilise it to its fullest. I guess that's where the customer trust & relations comes in. The ability to understand exactly how to care for your client in challenging situations.
I asked Simon if he could work on the technical aspect (code and language) required to make the project a reality, but he said he could not. Surprisingly, three days after the conversation he came to confirm that he had completed all that was needed to be done. He likes to solve problems.
First Major Business Deal
A company approached us as they needed design working doing for them, one of which was shop frontages. We quickly identified that the company had an edge against its competitors so proposed to build an e-commerce website. The idea interested them a lot, however they didn't have the money to invest in marketing at the time. Because we saw the potential in the company we decided to offer a commission deal to reduce the initial outlay for them. This worked for both parties and so a deal was done.
The original company closed its doors, but we forged ahead online and three years down the line, our online company grew fast creating a marketing budget of half a million pounds. We’ve now sold this business and it’s now a company selling different types of automotive products on a large scale.
That was our first foray into e-commerce marketing, and it became apparent that we had a great eye for details and how to optimise ecommerce websites to produce more revenue.
The Partnership Deals
A little while after that major shift for our and with word of mouth spreading about our successes and abilities, an associate called Tim introduced us to a reptile company that had monthly online sales of £20. I'll put it the same way Tim said it to us back then.
"Could you help these guys with the same commission deal we've heard about?"
After inspecting their business for a few days, my brother and I took up the challenge. Nine years after the deal, they are now in a position where the company is now a multi-million pound online reptile retail company.
Our second customer was an eBayer called Chris. Working in the same way, over 9 years he went from 500k to an £80m and an exit to a FTSE 100 organisation. We had proven that our methods for growing businesses to be very successful. We have so many of these wonderful stories, and so proud to be part of their journey.
The Story So Far
So the Supplyant story so far is that we have succeeded in helping lots of people grow their businesses online. In as much as people like to think of us as an e-commerce marketing company that gets the job done accurately, we are totally driven by client ROI.
Working with people who are motivated and ready to go commit their time and energy to give it what it takes is just so rewarding. If we invest 100% of our time & expertise into a business without the business owners drive to succeed, then it is a waste of time.
What’s the story moving forward?
Spreading our wings with more incredible partnerships and exciting marketing spaces that we don’t even know about yet.
Now that’s exciting!
If you want to join us on our amazing journey, don't hesitate to get in touch.