Old Mill Saddlery & Old Mill Whips How we developed and grew

Our Background at Old Mill Saddlery o Equestrian and saddlery based business o Established 1985 as a one man band o Manufacturing and resellers o Now employ 22 members of staff o Three methods of selling our goods and services: Retail Shop Other Retailer Outlets Internet

How Old Mill Whips Started… o A solution to a problem o Unique product o Intellectual property patents o Welfare issues o Product name

Old Mill Whips today…. o Decision to separate the saddlery and the whip business o Procush whips were made mandatory in all UK racing from 2005 onwards. o Now mandatory in Italy, France, South Africa, India, New Zealand and most states in USA and Canada. o Personalization of the whips. Opens lots of doors for our saddlery business.

Old Mill Saddlery Going Forward… o In Early 2000 business was so specialised / outgrown our local market o Started selling to other retail outlets o Benefits: o Increased turnover o Better Workshop Production o Improved Buying Power o Negatives o Less Margin o Slower Cash Flow

Business Decision: Sell more directly to end user, wanted better margin, better cash flow o We had three options; o Open more retail outlets o Produce a mail order catalogue o Sell via the internet o The Pros and Cons o Retail Outlets – hard to manage, large overheads o Mail Order Catalogue – out of budget, dates quickly o Internet – within budget, easy to keep up to date & current

Planning our website… o Market Research o Analysing competitor sites o Potential Markets o Planning delivery to markets o Technology Research o Shopping carts available o Technology used on leading ecommerce sites o Taking payments o Finding Web Design Partners o Capabilities o Portfolios o Experience o Support o Finding Web Design Partners

In-House Systems Key Requirements; o Good Stock Database o Sales Order Processing System o Purchase Order Processing o Ability to Import from Web o Ability to Export to Web o Handling of enquiries and questions o Customer relationship management

Important things to consider… o Think about optimizing search engines while building your website o Do not underestimate the sales power of search engines o How are you going to market your site? o How will you manage logistics like shipping, storage and invoicing? o How can you collect Customer data?

Our Business Today… Website o Accounts for approx 40% of our retail turnover o We employ 6 people in this department o Massively important side of our business o Will be our future growth Retail Store o Purpose built 7500 sq ft retail store opened 2009

Today and beyond… o New business management and logistics software o Our website has recently had a full revamp o More with Google ad campaigns and Google Shopping. o More modern look & feel o Personalization o More use of social media for marketing o Selling on Ebay