Partner Article

Online firm soars higher after turbulence

A DIGITAL firm on Teesside has recovered from being caught up in the launch of a failed regional airline by landing a new contract.

Teesside business partners Mike Janes and Mike Connolly are bouncing back despite being caught-up in all the disappointment of working for the aborted regional airline – Excelsis Airways.

The two Mikes’, and their company E-Strands, were pushed to the financial limit after they designed and developed an extensive website for the airline last summer.

Though the site took months to design and develop, E-Strands never received any payment for their efforts.

It meant having to battle severe personal financial hardship for both men, but together, they have slowly managed to turn things around and E-Strands is now going from strength to strength.

They’ve just won a major contract to build a new “visitTeesvalley” tourism site, in partnership with bdaily’s sister company bgroup and Northern Creative.

They’re also confident similar tourism orders will now follow after winning a significant reseller agreement with New Mind, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of technology solutions to the tourism sector.

E-Strands, who’ve just taken on a new web developer, are based on the Kirkleatham Business Park in Redcar. The site is managed by UK Steel Industries and E-Strands are extremely grateful for all the help and support they’ve had from UK Steel Enterprise in getting their business established.

Mr Janes said “What happened through that time with Excelsis was extremely difficult for us both, but we feel it has made us stronger, and we now just want to put it behind us and move on.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .