It’s now over three years since Melanie Rose-Gale approached Butlins in Minehead with an idea – could she open a shop on their premises to provide visitors with high quality clothing and shoes?

Butlins agreed, subject to some stringent service quality conditions – for example, customer satisfaction with the service they receive can never drop below 97%. And so Agogo was born, spawning a second outlet on Minehead High Street during 2005.

Melanie’s confidence in opening the second store suggests how well Agogo performed during its first two years. Melanie, who has had retail experience in the UK and Australia, believes in bringing people the things they want, and her stock selection always reflects who is visiting. So at half-terms and in school holidays they carry children’s clothes, but change to focus exclusively on grown-ups during adults’ weekends.

During the winter months, Butlins is open for themed weekend breaks, and the onsite Agogo is only open for those three days each week, with rapid stock changes to reflect each theme. Then, after three weeks off over Easter, it switches to a seven-day operation between April and October, an extremely busy period for Melanie and her team.

She is certain that part of the business’s success is down to the email marketing campaigns she has run with the assistance of Connecting Somerset, targeting past visitors to the Minehead Butlins.

And now she’s hoping for growth in online sales too, through her new website at www.a-gogo.co.uk. Although the site has only been live for a matter of weeks, sales volumes are already very encouraging, and the site is currently in the process of updating for the new fashion season.

“Connecting Somerset have been great, with grant support and advice on the website and marketing, as well as putting in web cameras so I can keep an eye on the business over the Internet,” she says. In fact, she’s been so successful that Agogo recently was runner-up in the Federation of Small Businesses’ award for Somerset’s Broadband Business of the Year.

The Agogo story hasn’t escaped the notice of Butlins itself, who have just awarded Melanie the right to open a second outlet at their site in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. “This is a really exciting development, so the next year is set to be even busier than the last three,” says Melanie.

Connecting Somerset’s Neil Saunders has been working closely with Melanie, and is extremely impressed by her approach to the business. “This is one company that’s really going places,” he says.

“She’s its driving force, and as long as she’s in charge I’m sure it’s going to be very successful indeed. In fact, I think there are many lessons that other retailers could learn from her approach, first in thinking imaginatively about how best to reach her customers and then using Broadband technology in driving it forward.”

- ends -

For further information, please contact :
David Wilford tel 01373 303004 mob 07790 774284
or Ron Dyson tel 01308 485707

Issued on behalf of Connecting Somerset by The Aurora Partnership