Tony has the whole county covered

Mar 18 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A NORTHUMBERLAND man has the county covered with an online business directory which puts clients in touch with local companies.

Tony McAndrew is the first person in England to be granted the rights to an entire county by thebestof, a franchise group which covers the UK with websites dedicated to their local area.

Mr McAndrew originally bought the rights to thebestof Morpeth website then took over the Hexham franchise, before buying the individual towns in the county. He then approached thebestof with his proposal to develop thebestof Northumberland.

Mr McAndrew said: “In England, it’s the first time they have done a whole county. My discussions with them were that there weren’t any large towns in Northumberland, it’s the least densely populated county in England.

“It has a strong sense of identity. The Northumberland brand is a very strong one and people relate to it very well.”

He is confident thebestof brand will continue to expand. In addition to acting as an online business directory, the website allows businesses to network and provides events listings. Almost 200 businesses are listed on the countywide site.

“The concept now is that people go to the internet more to find out information, but it’s generally not good at finding local information. Thebestof is all about getting found on the internet and getting a profile for local companies, so it’s run by local people in each area,” Mr McAndrew said.

“Northumberland has so much to offer both in terms of leisure and business opportunities. The new website is bigger and better than before and will reach many thousands of people each week promoting our region and the businesses that serve it.”

Originally from Morpeth, Mr McAndrew moved away for more than two decades and worked in various parts of the UK in his job as an IT project manager. However, once projects were up and running his position became redundant, and after the final redundancy, he decided to return home with his wife and two sons, who are now 13 and 10.

“It’s just a fantastic place to work. I’ve commuted all my life and driving around Northumberland is not like commuting,” he said.