SWDF member (Designed in Devon cluster), pulse8 secures major contract with one of the UK’s largest holiday park operators
Web and design agency, pulse8 has just secured one of its largest contracts to date. Based in Staverton, Devon the firm has carved a niche for itself as a major creative player within the South West tourism sector. And, utilising this expertise and industry specific track record, signed a contract this week with the Haulfryn Group.
The brief is to completely overhaul the entire web presence of the Haulfryn Group, one of the largest holiday park operators in the UK. The family owned company runs 21 holiday locations in some of the most desirable parts of Britain as well as operating a further 30 residential parks in England. Three holiday parks are located in Devon, including the award winning Finlake, Chudleigh, and Devon Hills in Paignton and Dartmoor View in Okehampton.
This latest addition to pulse8’s stable of clients adds to an already impressive list including the newly launched Happy Camping (online retail shop) and associated O’Connors Campers, in addition to Buccaneer Pubs, Dartmouth Tourist Information and Compton Pool Farm, winners of the coveted South West Tourism Gold Award for best website, two years running. Securing the national contract this summer for Timpson Ltd was also another fine move for the agency.
Speaking of the firm’s recent successes, Matt Salter, Managing Director, pulse8 enthused: ‘Winning the contract with the Haulfryn Group is a real coup for us and we’re absolutely delighted. As a small dynamic team of eight, we can be flexible and responsive to the needs of our clients, whilst keeping ahead of new technologies, trends and design ideas. It’s a combination of these factors that’s helping us to secure some fantastic projects. In tougher economic times a company’s web presence is an opportunity to stand out from the competition and our clients want the very sharpest, most user-friendly websites possible.
Matt continued: ‘Over the past nine years we have worked hard to build strong relationships with local businesses – be they new start ups or long-standing firms. As well as this, we’ve established ourselves as web and design experts able to compete nationally, and we’re proving that we are capable of delivering on that level and, we’re hopeful that we’ll continue to secure more contracts of this scope and size moving forward’.
Commenting on their reasons for selecting pulse8 to re-design the businesses web presence, Stacey Gibson for the Haulfryn Group said: ‘Utilising local suppliers is important to us and as such we conducted an extensive search of web designers in the South West. We were very impressed with pulse8 from the outset. The team’s ideas were creative and original far outweighing their competitors, plus they had an excellent understanding of all our requirements.
As leaders in the holiday and residential home industry, maintaining a strong brand image is crucial for us and our websites are a major part of that. Celebrating 75 years as a family-owned company next year, we are really keen to ensure that our website promotes our business in the best way possible. pulse8 demonstrated a fine understanding of our brief and work done to date has only further reiterated this. We hope to have a very long-term relationship with the team.”
As part of the project, pulse8 will undertake a complete re-design of the group’s various websites to help each one exploit the technologies the internet has to offer, ultimately enabling the company’s staff, and customers, to better share information and communicate more effectively. Work on the project commences with immediate effect with all websites due to go ‘live’ by the end of 2009.
The Haulfryn Group project comes hot on the heels of pulse8’s recent move and management restructure which has seen Directors, Matt Salter, Darren Hunt and Adam Fullalove, take full ownership of the business. And the new office space, at Staverton, just outside Totnes, provides the perfect launch pad for this new era for the agency. With the intention of establishing a ‘creative and inspiring hub that includes outside space, a private meeting area and stunning views across the South Devon countryside’, Matt concluded, ‘our dedicated team of experienced designers, developers and project managers are more well-placed than ever to build on our recent successes moving forward’.