Jim’s on target cross Channel
SERIAL entrepreneur Jim Mann has shot his paintball retail business into France.
Darlington-based Just Paintball UK ships branded paintballs, site overalls and tournament marshal tops across the Channel from the UK and now does around 20% of its business in France.
Established by Mr Mann in 2001, the company sells more than £2m of equipment and accessories per year, with the UK and Ireland accounting for the majority of its revenue.
He said: “Shipping goods from the UK is a better option than having a base in France as it allows us to keep our overheads down.
“We are operating in a growing market. Overall, we get around 1m (website) page views a month.”
The Edinburgh-born entrepreneur has run several successful start-up ventures including the Croft-based Point Blank paintball theme park, which he launched in 1999.
In the same year he established Madtrax Tyne Tees, an off-road carting centre that was sold in 2002 “for a healthy return”.
Not all of his ventures have had a happy ending, though.
Bedsearcher, the internet accommodation provider that he launched with partner Gill Chapple in 2002, fell into administration before being bought by Worcester-based Discover Travel & Tours International Ltd earlier this year.
The business had expanded rapidly since 2002, selling about £4m of room space per year by charging accommodation providers 12% of the fee paid by customers who booked via the site.
However Bedsearcher racked up debts, which led to cashflow problems.
The company’s new owner was established in 1977 and employs more than 65 multilingual travel professionals at its offices in Worcester, London and Edinburgh.
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