4 minute read
Big Interview
PRESCIENT PLANNING FUELS RAPID GROWTH OF OUTDOOR SPECIALIST
The icing on the cake for camping equipment specialist OLPRO, which is currently celebrating the 10th anniversary of its founding, is the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in international trade. that recognises a remarkable success story.
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BY HELEN COMPSON
After delivering a 60% year-on-year growth in 2020 driven by the Covid-induced swing towards staycations, Outdoor Leisure Products’ sales figures are up another 20% again this summer. With exports accounting for around 8% of turnover, its level of international trade has doubled in the past 12 to 18 months and now a new team of staff has been appointed specifically to look after it. Founder Daniel Walton said: “Camping in western Europe is a massive pastime and we have always made sure we were thinking about product that would sell there as well.
“But the OLPRO website operates in 25 countries around the world at the moment and we are focused on growing that.” As with every other exporter, Brexit took its toll on OLPRO, at least initially. However, the company is now strategically well-placed to mop up sales where competitors are faltering in the face of the new world order. The OLPRO team has been working assiduously through the varied and changing demands of export bureaucracy this past year, to the point they have managed to iron out most of the wrinkles. Daniel said: “Brexit is a nightmare and I wish it had never happened. For us, it stopped our chain of supplies to quite a few countries to begin with. “We have been working our way through what are sometimes quite difficult processes though until we’ve managed to get exporting again to all the countries we were selling in previously. “A lot of our competitors probably won’t do that, so maybe it has put us in quite a good competitive position.” OLPRO 2020 was the handle given to its three-year development plan designed to expand both the company on the ground and its market share. Come the pandemic and the rollercoaster that 2020 turned out to be, Daniel had good reason to be thankful for the solid measures he’d put in place. The appointment of a Marketing Manager, the expansion of the sales force and the improvement of the company’s online customer service platform suddenly all came into their own as Covid appeared to kill camping. Although sales “dropped off a cliff” in those first few weeks, the team realised that a legion of would-be customers was actually still there - online and browsing. Marketing material was reshaped to highlight the joys of taking indoor living outdoors and, for kids big and little, camping out in the garden. A grateful customer base, desperate to get out of the four walls, sharp responded. “There hasn’t been anything we’ve been able to keep in stock,” said Daniel. “We’ve sold tents and windbreaks in the thousands. People have been prepared to pre-order and wait two months for delivery of windbreaks, rather than just buy what’s been available elsewhere. It’s been insane!”
Daniel has long since felt camper vans would be the biggest development in camping this generation and expanded his line of stock accordingly. That has paid dividends too. “We are now the UK’s leading brand of camper van awnings,” he said. There’s no doubt about it, he says, the recent trade barriers and the well-publicised shortage of shipping containers/tardiness of shipping lanes generally has made restocking harder this year. However, OLPRO has benefitted hugely from being a directly-owned brand. “We don’t own the factory that produces our products in the Far East,” he said, “but we license it, so we have a deal with them. We are the one company who they supply with whatever is needed. “Some of our competitors have struggled because they are selling several brands and suppliers are choosing who they supply first. “Owning our own brand and having a unique supplier has been key to our success.” Having grown from just two employees (including Daniel) a decade ago, he now has 21 staff. By 2025 – the end of his current five-year business plan – he aims to have a 35-strong team. He is always watching and anticipating - analysing trends and looking to the future. But if there is one thing 2020 has taught him, despite the bonanza OLPRO enjoyed, that is no entrepreneur can afford to be blasé. “I am very aware that we are currently reaping the benefits of people being unable to go abroad,” he said. “Come next year, when they can go back to Spain and Greece again, will these times have built a fresh appreciation and love of camping here in our own countryside? “And will we have done enough to retain customer loyalty and to encourage them to keep going away for a week’s camping in the UK each year?” Daniel and his team are working hard to make sure, hand on heart, they can answer yes to at least the latter. OLPRO’s comprehensive customer service platform and the related chat facility, introduced in 2019, is capable of answering enquiries out of hours as well as during the working day. It helps customers choose the right kit to begin with. Now, in response to the sheer volume of orders being submitted every day of the week, OLPRO has staff working at the weekends too, from home, answering customer enquiries with a swiftness that pretty much always clinches a sale.
