Member Article

Newcastle technology provider Activ report £2.8 million turnover following 30% sales growth

Business technology provider Activ has grown its sales by almost 30% in the last year as it continues to cross-sell other technologies into its mobile phone customer base.

Newcastle-based Activ, which provides comprehensive telecoms and technology solutions to SMEs across and beyond the North East, reported turnover of £2.8 million in the year to September 2014, up from £2.1 million in the previous 12 months.

Managing director Ian Gillespie, who is best known for founding telecoms company Fone Logistics 18 years ago before selling out to Daisy plc for £3.5 million four years ago, attributes the growth to its move further into application technology and being one of the very few companies in the North-East to truly supply all mobile communications, devices and technology under one roof.

As the business grows, Gillespie is determined the client will remain at the heart of its strategy as the Balliol Business Park-based company launches its Activ Customer Experience Programme to ensure they provide an exemplary end user experience.

In addition, it has just appointed marketing executive Daniel Flounders from Newcastle Building Society to help it better communicate with its customers and take care of its social media, newsletter production and CRM cleansing

Eldest daughter Emma Gillespie is also stepping up her account manager role alongside new ex-TSG Sales Director David Kaye, as Activ expands its services to be able to offer support on both back end accounting financial solutions, Sage and Pegasus.

Activ says that SMEs can assume that the latest technological advances are only within reach for larger companies with big resources, capital and internal expertise.

And that smaller firms can dismiss potentially valuable solutions because they assume they will either be too complex or expensive for them.

Activ managing director Ian Gillespie said: “We have grown revenues by 29% and have achieved this with growth across all sectors. It seems the message that we don’t just sell mobile phones is getting through to the market and the numbers are now demonstrating this.

“The company has now been established over a number of years and with the business growth, emergence of so many new technologies and Emma building her role I like to think of this as the next generation of Activ.”

Sales director David Kaye said: “But this is far from the case in reality. In fact, many of the latest innovations in the tech world are ideal for use in SMEs and none more so than cloud computing.

“This is often a concept that intimidates small firms, who worry about the impact such a big change will have on their operations. But, in fact, there are a wide range of financial and operational benefits that SMEs can enjoy as a result of moving to the cloud and we are seeing more businesses open to this idea.”