Green&Blue are award winning designers and creators of unique gift ideas for the home and garden.  From their studio in Perranporth they produce and sell eco-friendly bird feeders, bird houses, bee houses as well as wildflower seeds for attracting birds and bees into gardens.  The business was set up by husband and wife team Kate and Gavin Christman in 2005 and currently employs 5 people.

Their products are sold via their own website and are also stocked by retailers such as The Conran Shop, Selfridges and The Design Museum as well as outlets in France and the Netherlands.

Green&Blue are previous winners of the Soil Association Award for Innovation and the Cornwall Sustainability Award for design innovation. They have been invited to Defra Pollinator Strategy meetings and attended an event at Number 10 Downing Street to talk about Bee Bricks.

In November 2018 they achieved certification as a registered B Corporation.  B Corporations (or B Corps) are a growing group of companies who are reinventing business, pursuing purpose as well as profit, meeting rigorous social and environmental standards which represent commitment to goals beyond that of profit.

The Opportunity

The business contacted Superfast Business Cornwall as they were keen to improve their online marketing.  The company also had identified an opportunity to reach new markets for their products via a portal area for Commercial and Trade clients, offering a new service which combined two existing web portals into one improved experience.

How did Superfast Business Cornwall support Green&Blue?

Digital Business Adviser, Jon Gerrard met with Faye Clifton, Sales and Marketing Manager, and helped to identify the options available to them to achieve their business goals.

Jon arranged for a specialist to work with Faye on understanding their Google Analytics and Facebook Insights with the aim to get the most out of their marketing activities. Faye also attended a digital marketing masterclass and Jon carried out a review of their website and suggested improvements to make the user experience more effective and encourage more sales.

Funding from Superfast Business Cornwall was used to fund 50% of the costs of bringing in an expert to develop their portal idea further.

As Faye explains:

“The new web portal will streamline and provide systems integration and continuity with improved backup capability.  Our IT systems integration will link our courier system, finance, marketing and CRM which will free up resources, and importantly time, to reinvest in growth/sales tasks within the business and to support the launch of our new products which are currently in production and going live in 2019.

We are launching new products for bats and swifts and these are very much designed with the construction market in mind which is why we are so keen to improve the process for them of visiting our web platform, enabling them to access quick pricing information and key metrics to assist their purchasing decisions.”

Jon adds:

“It is anticipated that developing the commercial portal and streamlining the website processes will result in considerable time saving, both with smart marketing and shipping integrations which will greatly reduce time spent trouble-shooting.”

Benefits for the Business

The new web portal launch, in line with the new products coming to market, will be the beginning of a new stage of growth for Green&Blue.  They also expect to increase the number of people they employ.

Faye says:

“We expect to see great traction with the commercial sector and will also be able to use time saved to focus on sales growth and increased activity.  We will be removing very time consuming and manual working processes.  This will free up time to allow us to develop more innovative products to add to our expanding range, for bats, bees and swifts.  This will also allow us to offer a better service to commercial customers.

We already sell 94% outside of Cornwall and we would be looking to continue this in addition to looking to sell more locally.

The support from Superfast Business Cornwall has been invaluable in helping us identify both quick wins and shape long-term plans to increase the visibility of our brand and products.”