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ESE shortlisted for Global Dell Small Business Excellence Awards

ESE (Eastern Storage Equipment Ltd) a Norwich based business has been selected as 1 of 10 UK finalists in the Global Dell Small Business Excellence Awards.

If they are successful this would be their fourth award for their use of technology and the internet to improve customer service and the overall effectiveness of the business since June 2007.

ESE are in the fortunate position of having grown sales consistently every year for the last four years (£1.511m to £2.426m) an impressive 60.56% increase.

Their customer base has also grown by 91.7% in the same period (945 to 1812 purchasing customers), and at the same time because of the internet it is no longer restricted to East Anglia, in fact there were only 4 postal districts in the UK that ESE did not supply to in 2008.

ESE listens carefully to its customers feedback and strives ‘to treat customers and suppliers as they would wish to be treated in their position’ as they want customers to want to buy from them again and again.

Past award judges have commented ‘the use of technology and system integration is amazing considering the size of the business, it is clear you will do your best to go that extra mile to make sure the customer is fully satisfied.’

Indeed one of the National award judges (an MD of an International Corporation with over 500 staff actually sent his Head of IT to spend time with ESE after the awards to find out how they could learn from ESE).

The business has diversified significantly over the years from initially selling shelving and racking in 1975, to then include mezzanine floors, industrial partitioning, office partitions in 1983, trucks / trolleys, handling equipment, workbenches, tool storage, signs, first aid equipment etc since 1987 and cloakroom furniture and lockers since 1990 with the aim of becoming a ‘One Stop Shop’ for all the needs of businesses, schools, clubs etc and with in excess of 20,000 products available they are well underway.

Despite the apparent doom and gloom around the UK, ESE had their best ever year in their 34 year history in 2008 and they show no sign of slowing down their meteoric rise as 2009 is on target to exceed this feat.

They have around 400 competitors spread across the UK yet ESE were ranked by Plimsoll as 87th with a ‘Strong’ rating reflecting their recent outstanding performance.

The growth has been almost exclusively through their use of the internet to generate enquiries and orders for all three divisions of the business.

http://www.esedirect.co.uk which sells 10,000 products for business online, including shelving and racking, via a mail order catalogue.

http://www.eseprojects.co.uk which designs and carries out refurbishment of offices, warehouses and factories.

http://www.cloakroomseating.co.uk which manufactures changing room benches, lockers and leisure matting.

ESE are at the beginning of their journey with a number of exciting plans in place to increase its market share in 2010 and beyond.

The UK winner will be announced in September and they will then go forward to compete against 12 other countries for the Global Award.