Active Mobility upwardly mobile after Retail & Hospitality Grant

"Within a couple of days of the new website launching we had started picked up new customers which was fantastic. We are so grateful to the county council for their support.

A small business specialising in mobility products is already attracting new customers thanks to a new, more attractive website upgraded with the help of a Retail & Hospitality Grant from Warwickshire County Council.

Active Mobility, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, applied for support from the Retail and Hospitality Grant scheme, part of an initial £8 million package of funding earmarked by the County Council to support the immediate economic recovery in the county.

The rapid release of funding has made grants of between £2,000 and £7,500 available to provide long-lasting benefits for the businesses, their local communities and the local economy.

In the case of Active Mobility, the grant enabled the business to improve its service at a very important time to a client-base, many of whom are having to shield under restrictions caused by the pandemic.

"A lot of our customers are having to shield which means it is more important than ever that they can get all the information they need about our products online," said Active Mobility managing director Tracy Suther. "They can now do that after the grant enabled us to transform our website. Our old website was very developer-dependant but now we can organise it all ourselves and make changes instantly so that the information is always right up to date.

"The website is much cleaner, faster  and more modern. It is divided into sections so that customers can search for exactly the product they want without having to look at things not relevant to them. We can also now take card payments, which we could not do before and is a huge step forward for us.

"Within a couple of days of the new website launching we had started picked up new customers which was fantastic. We are so grateful to the county council for their support. Without the grant, we would not have been able to afford the website upgrade for several years."

 Active Mobility, a long-established business which employs five people, is now looking forward with confidence despite the very challenging year.

"The pandemic has had a big impact and cost us about half our business, but we have a great team here and a loyal customer base, so we have weathered the storm," said Tracy. "With the fantastic support of the Retail & Hospitality Grant, we are now looking to grow again."