Digital firm Orange Bus is en-route to doubleing turnover

Nov 19 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

DIGITAL agency Orange Bus has revealed plans to more than double its turnover to £1m in the next 12 months on the back of three years of shrewd investment.

The Newcastle company has gradually built up its workforce to 14 – on top of the recent addition of experienced non-executive director Chris Rhodes – as it prepares for the country’s economic recovery.

After spending the last three years building up a number of heavyweight clients, including Ringtons Tea & Coffee and eaga plc, the business now has the capacity to carry out a wider, more complex range of services, which it says will help it grow considerably.

With a £400,000 turnover this year and a predicted £200,000 for the first quarter alone in 2010,the firm’s sights are focused on hitting the £1m mark within a year.

Chris Rhodes, who will assist Orange Bus with its aggressive growth plans, has more than 15 years experience in technology, media and online markets, including the development and launch of Talk Talk’s “Free Broadband” service in the UK.

Director and co-founder Julian Leighton said: “We took the view that the country won’t be in recession forever. There was some great potential in the job market because of the problems that other companies were having.

“We have built the capacity to do more work into the company. We just had a feeling that the private sector – which was really tough at the start of the year – would recover.”

Meanwhile, Mr Rhodes said the last three years of investment for Orange Bus had paid off and the firm now has a recurring customer base on which to build rapid but controlled growth.

He said: “I’ve watched these guys pitch in some big corporations in London and they instantly engage with them.”

Orange Bus recently renegotiated its contract with North East-born multinational brand Ringtons so that it now services its online offering every month, rather than its previous one-off work with the firm, which is enjoying booming sales on the internet.

Earlier this year Orange Bus gave touring car fans all over the world access to online footage from one of the team garages at a major race on the circuit.

The company broadcast a live web feed from the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) race in September.

The firm sponsors the bamboo engineering team, alongside its driver Harry Vaulkhard.

Orange Bus is named after Mr Leighton’s 1974 VW camper van.