Growth funding puts e-commerce agency ahead

NuBlue Limited, a Lancaster-based e-commerce agency and web hosting provider, is aiming to become a market leader in web design and hosting for e-commerce businesses, after securing growth funding from Lancashire Rosebud Finance™.

Since the business began trading eleven years ago, it has grown from a two-person team to a company with over 40 employees.  The new funding will now allow the business to create another six jobs for the region.

Founded by brothers Michael and Thomas Ashworth, NuBlue works with some of the country’s top e-commerce businesses to design, build and host high-performance, mobile-friendly, search engine-optimised websites.

NuBlue works specifically with Magento, an open-source e-commerce platform that powers many of the country’s top performing e-commerce stores.

Magento, which was adopted by NuBlue in 2008, is now one of the most popular e-commerce platforms on the market, representing around 26% of the top one million e-commerce sites.

Since its adoption of Magento, NuBlue has grown into a thriving e-commerce business with clients including The Jewel Hut, Chi Chi Clothing, Football League Trust and Meridian Healthcare.  It has also completed projects involving the NHS, Toni & Guy and Danone.

Managing Director of NuBlue Michael Ashworth said: “The e-commerce sector in the UK is huge and growing at a rapid rate.  We work closely with our clients to create and host e-commerce platforms that help them capitalise on this growth and succeed in the online space.  The funding from Rosebud will help us to grow the excellent team we have here and deliver even more projects in 2017.”

The loan was invested by Enterprise Ventures, which manages Rosebud™ on behalf of Lancashire County Developments Limited (LCDL), Lancashire County Council’s economic development company.

Peter Rooney, Investment Manager at Enterprise Ventures, said: “When we think of e-commerce, we usually think of London and the ‘Silicon Roundabout’.  Businesses such as NuBlue demonstrate that the North West is also at the centre of this growing sector, by offering both e-commerce marketplaces and the tools to ensure that they run efficiently and securely.”

County Councillor Niki Penney, Chair of Lancashire County Developments Limited, said: “NuBlue is using innovation and new technology, which are key attributes that we want to encourage Lancashire businesses to embrace.

“E-commerce benefits the companies they work with by improving their online services, and NuBlue helps them to deliver this.

“We’re especially pleased that they’re based at our White Cross Business Park in Lancaster, which is owned by LCDL.  This is a great location for businesses, with many growing companies based on the site.”