Problem

With an operation of this size, maintaining an internet presence and increasing online sales is a challenge.  When Roger Keith, Operations Director of the Buttress Group, decided to grow the company’s online presence, he immediately contacted Bob Young of IRUN Banbury. 

Roger Keith and Bob Young’s friendship and professional relationship has spanned more than 20 years. Having worked together in the past, Roger has the utmost respect for Bob’s sales and marketing expertise and knowledge. He could think of nobody better equipped to put his companies on the internet map.

Solutions

Bob Young’s years of experience in internet marketing meant he could design and deliver well-crafted functional websites, with the minimum of fuss.

1. CaterParts
First to benefit from the IRUN Banbury treatment was the CaterParts website. This arm of The Buttress Group sells spare parts for commercial catering equipment to specialist engineers. The site’s importance lies in being able to provide an out-of-hours purchasing facility for professional engineers who spend much of their time on the road and working onsite. Although the CaterParts website is aimed at service engineers, it also attracted attention from the caterers themselves. Not every spare part needs technical expertise to fit, and there is a growing market for parts, such as deep-fat fryer baskets and equipment handles. CaterBits website was set up to meet this need.

2. CaterBits
Selling direct to caterers, hoteliers, and publicans, the online eCommerce facility on the Caterbits site allows caterers to make purchases out of traditional shop or business hours. CaterBits provides an extensive range of catering equipment and other products, from dishwasher baskets and disposables to catering packs of coffee and the very essential Wobble Wedges.

3. Wobble Wedges
The Wobble Wedges and CaterBits websites were developed simultaneously. Wobble Wedges are small plastic shims, used to level table legs or other wobbly pieces of furniture or equipment. It was decided to develop a separate site for Wobble Wedges, as the potential market went far beyond the catering industry. For example, the simple wedges are used extensively in plumbing to level WCs and washbasins. However, because of the existing catering market, the sites had to work cohesively, with easy navigation between them.

Result

Bob Young constructed all 3 websites, including the banner design. From The Buttress Group’s brief, he wrote the website copy and optimised the pages with the appropriate keywords. Although Bob constructed the sites, Roger Keith spent some time familiarising himself with the workings of the IRUN online software. He was impressed by its flexibility, facilities such as the built-in statistics package, and its almost endless potential.

Roger Keith sees all three websites as part of the development of the Buttress Group’s internet marketing. With the user-friendliness of the WebBuildPRO platform, the websites can be regularly updated in-house to maintain their freshness and appeal. This is particularly important as The Buttress Group uses email and electronic newsletters extensively in its marketing campaigns. 

The online sales, particularly through the CaterParts website, are growing, with currently between 5 and 10% of the company’s sales come through the online portal. Online purchasing of catering equipment spare parts is a break from tradition in the UK: in Italy and Germany online sales account for between 20 and 40% of the spare parts market. With Bob Young’s internet marketing skills, and the development of his IRUN websites, Roger Keith is confident his online sales will rival those of his European counterparts in time.