 Hi! My name is Colin Stewart and The Fruit Box is my latest online business venture. I have a PhD in Engineering and many years' experience in engineering consultancy but I always wanted to run my own business. It took the usual mid-life crisis at the grand old age of 40 to make me see that I really wanted to do 'my own thing' and I set up my first online company Motorsport World in the year 2000. That company sells performance car parts and by 2004 had become one of the largest online retailers in the UK (in that market), a position which we still hold today. In that business I have four staff and we have now taken over 26,000 orders (Nov 2006), over 50% of which are from repeat customers or from people coming to us on recommendation. We have achieved this by continually making sure that we provide the best service possible along with the best prices.
I am now bringing this recipe of excellent service and great prices to the gifts market. I have employed Michelle who has a degree in Marketing and several years experience in the gifts industry to help me develop this side of the business. She has proved to be a 'dream' employee who is not only a self-starter but has an eye for what gifts people would like to buy for their friends and relatives. She was key in setting up Balloon Box through the summer of 2006 and has now set up Fruit Box for us. A major reason for employing Michelle is that I knew her from a company that I did work for in the past and knew that she had the same attitude to customer service as me - lets do our best to get it right first time. Many online gift companies will actually offer same day deliveries that they have no physical chance of achieving. That doesn't happen here!
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I operate all my businesses from Units 10&11
in the Hamilton Road Industrial Estate in Strathaven, Scotland and my wife Alexa
is my financial director. |
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