Mark Berriman, Managing Director, Pet Supermarket

Oct 18 2010 by Chris Knox, The Journal

He is just 30 years old but Mark Berriman has already set up a string of successful businesses and won a brace of awards. Christopher Knox met up with him to discuss his future plans and how his dog Charlie proved the key to his greatest success.

ANYONE who has ever fancied setting up their own business won’t fail to be encouraged after spending an hour in the company of Mark Berriman.

He has an infectious enthusiasm which led him to launch businesses including Jarrow-based www.pet-supermarket.co.uk . And in just six years he has taken the company to an annual turnover of £4.3m and the serial entrepreneur is confident it will see £6m by January next year.

His eventual aim is to run a £40m company and he wants to set up a series of other businesses, including a firm that provides warehouse management software to retailers around the world.

Although such plans may seem a little ambitious, especially considering the current climate, it’s hard not to believe that he can achieve his goals, particularly as he has illustrated a strong business brain ever since the age of nine.

Berriman, who now lives with his girlfriend Shelly in South Shields, said: “I did my first business plan at the age of nine after the class was asked to do a project on something that interested them.

“For some reason I chose to do a business plan for a bus company, which included a lot of detail. I have always loved numbers and started reading the FT at a young age, not to sound like a big head or anything.”

Although his first venture involved cutting his neighbours’ grass, which included offering a free bag of popcorn as an incentive, it was school that represented a plethora of business opportunities for the young Berriman.

He says: “I used to run a tuck shop at school as part of my business studies course and even ran a stationery shop after finding a Viking Direct catalogue in the headmistress’ office.

“I was always looking for ways to make money. Making money was something that definitely took up a lot of my time at school.”

However, it was behavioural difficulties that prevented him from achieving his full potential at school, and he left secondary school at the age of 16.

“Just to put it in perspective, I was thrown out of Sunday school at the age of four and was kicked off my cycling proficiency course at the age of eight,” he says.

“I was quite a troubled child and the teachers had written me off by the time I got to secondary school. However, looking back I believe it was because I used to pick things up really quickly, and in an hour class I would become bored and disruptive once I had finished the tasks.

“It was frustrating on reflection as my teachers weren’t acknowledging the skills I had, only the bad behaviour.”

Reluctant to give into the pressures of pursuing further education, Berriman began selling padding for damaged sofas, known as sofa savers, at a barrow in Eldon Square and a market at South Shields, while working at a factory for circuit board manufacturer Via Systems.

He soon became bored with his job at the factory and started work at a BT call centre in Longbenton, North Tyneside, before moving over to the AA’s telesales department.

He says: “I was at an age where I didn’t know what I wanted to do. All I knew at that stage was that call centres paid well, especially if you’re good at selling.

“I moved around so much that it’s ridiculous really, I mean if I was employing me back then, I wouldn’t last two minutes.”

It was in 2000 that Berriman would begin to prove his worth as an entrepreneur, when he helped his mother, Janet, build a website to sell the gift packs she was making at her corner shop in South Shields.

Although he had little idea of how to design a website he quickly taught himself and invested £1,000 in a piece of software to help get the gift packs on the net.

He says: “My mam had owned a corner shop for about four years and had begun packaging wine together with chocolates and glasses and even took part of a floristry course in order to include flowers.

“It was clear that we had a really simple but ingenious business idea on our hands, but didn’t have the means to get the products out to the wider public.

“Although I was no good at either art or graphics, I trusted the fact that I had taught myself most things about business to that point and soon built a successful website and became a partner in Gifts2Drink with my mum.”

In three years, Berriman helped grow Gifts2Drink to turn over £500,000 with profits of £60,000 a year. Although he was determined to grow this to £2m, differences between mother and son began to make life a little difficult.

He recalls: “I didn’t always get on with my mam during my early 20s, and didn’t really feel that I was getting the credit I deserved, having stayed in the background while my mum took car of the day-to-day business.

“However, I had handled all of the customer care duties, as well as all the marketing and financial forecasting, which had me working all hours of the day.

“I’m a self-confessed workaholic, but my mam never realised that and just thought that the growth of the business was more down to luck.”

And so he quit the business and started up internet marketing firm Viverdi the next day.

He moved into office space at Tedco at Viking Industrial Park, Jarrow, where he began advising local businesses on how to get the best out of their websites and even set up an American company, viverdi.com, which saw him set up sales portals for company’s including Hallmark and 1800flowers in the US.

However, his biggest business success would come soon after, and from one of the most unlikely of sources.

“By the end of 2003 I was living with my girlfriend Shelly and we decided that we wanted a dog,” he smiles.

“We found a chocolate Labrador called Charlie being advertised by owners in Catterick and spent £400 kitting out our house in order to make it more dog-friendly. However, I began to have problems finding the food I wanted for Charlie, which was speciality brand Hills Science Plan.

“Speciality foods, which have a much higher meat content than supermarket brands, are usually found at vets or places like Pets at Home. But I didn’t have time to make the one hour round trip to pick up the food as I was so busy getting Viverdi off the ground.

“After hitting the internet, I realised there was only one other dog food supplier that was selling online and that there was an opportunity to chase what is a £2.5bn market. So, I have Charlie to thank for my biggest success.”

And www.pet-supermarket.co.uk was born. Berriman secured a £50,000 loan to help him move into a site at Bede Industrial Estate, Jarrow in 2005, which he has subsequently moved out of and into larger warehousing space next door.

However, it is the firm’s creditors to whom Berriman is most grateful. “We are currently experiencing problems securing funding from the banks as a result of the economic situation and the fact that they need too much security.

“However, we have a fantastic relationship with our creditors, especially veterinary suppliers Dunlop's in Dumfries, Scotland, which was a big support to us when the banks nearly finished us last year.”

Despite this the firm is on target to hit £6m in January next year after becoming more competitive with its pricing and launching a new website. It also recently joined the 17% of UK retailers that provide guaranteed delivery slots to its customers, and has also increased its product range from 5,000 to 8,500 over the last year.

Such drive and determination have been recognised with a number of awards, including The Journal’s North East Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2007 and the STEP Retailer of the Year award in the same year.

However, it’s not awards which please him most. He said: “Although it was great to win the awards, I’m not a very vain person, so awards aren't what spur me on. I get much more pleasure out of seeing my company’s turnover go up.

“Just like when I was working on the market stall, I used to take pride in counting up the money at the end of the day.”

Although it’s a little early to talk about retirement given that Berriman only turns 31 at the end of the month, he already has plans for a farm in the countryside where he wants to look after cows, his favourite animal. It is safe to say he won’t just put his feet up.

He enthuses: “I've got so many ideas for the farm. I would love to have warehousing on the land in which my various businesses would be based, as well as open up a garden centre, or even a petting zoo.”