G. N. Badley & Sons butchers, in Gibbons Road, Trench, has customers stretching from London and Scotland following the success of the website.

The business, which is managed by a mother and son partnership, sends out a regular newsletter to 11,000 subscribers which results in almost half those customers (42%) placing online orders.

They have around 5,000 hits on the website each month and a recent online competition attracted 9,710 entries, with 19,630 people visiting the competition page.

The family business was set up by Keith Badley in 1976 but when Keith passed away in 2011 the business was continued by his widow Kay and son Simon.

Kay Badley, operations director, said: “We have had a year of really driving the website and our services offered online.

“For a small family business which has been through hard times in the past, we are very pleased with where we are today and we have an excellent basis on which to grow.

“I would never have dreamed of the local butcher being this big online and providing a services to customers across the whole of the UK, but it just shows what a little bit of innovation can do.

“We pride ourselves on offering the customer the easiest experience for them and we will continue to look for ways to improve this.”

The online drive has contributed to a year of around seven per cent growth for the company as a whole.

The butchers has six members of staff who will all have had online training by the end of this year.

They will be able to add blogs to the website, manage the social media of the business and process any online enquiries.

Managing director Simon Badley added: “It is a huge arm of our business and we are one of only eight butchers in the area that offer online ordering.

“We want to stay ahead of the game so as well as developing new products and ensuring the best quality meat is available here, we have invested a lot of time and money into boosting our online presence.
“We are in the process of giving our website another overhaul to make it even simpler for potential customers to understand and use.

“We hope to launch the new look website in the coming months and we will continue to prioritise online business which will hopefully see even more growth this year.”