Blog

Growing success of Somerset business support company puts it on the expansion trail

The continuing success of Somerset-based business support specialists Apples & Oranges has led to it outgrowing its current premises – and taking space in The Stables, Rooksbridge, allowing it to take on more staff locally and continue to increase the services it provides.

The seven-strong team provides a range of different services for businesses large and small, from a telephone answering service, telemarketing, a full PA service and almost everything in between.

In addition to the office services offered, they also run a series of successful business exhibitions around the UK, including The Somerset Business Show.

“We enable business owners to get on with what they do best and enjoy most,” says the company’s founder Dawn Davis. “Almost everyone sets up a company not to handle the day-to-day running but to follow a passion – often to create a service or product. The rest of it is administration which can eat up your time and energy and distract you from developing your full potential, as well as involve taking on support staff who may not be fully occupied.

“We let businesses focus on being more productive – while we handle anything they choose from a long list of services. The reason we came up with our company name was because we are so many different things to so many people… an abstract name means whatever you want it to!”

The proposition has proved such a success that over 200 businesses now rely on Apples & Oranges – many are locally based, although Dawn does have clients across the UK and as far away as Australia.

“Since we started the telephone answering side of the business in March 2016, the company has steadily expanded,” she says, “but we’ve now outgrown our present accommodation in West Huntspill. At the Stables we’ll be able to take on more personnel and increase our opening hours – a really important consideration if you provide telephone answering.

“Being so close to the M5, it’s also perfectly located for us to access clients – and for them to come and see us when they want, as well as attract new personnel.”

Apples & Oranges has taken a five-year lease on 889 sq ft of offices at The Stables; but as the development’s MD Tom Dalley points out, his new tenant has the flexibility to move to bigger premises at the same location should they need to in the future. Finding flexible office space which can grow with you can be a major challenge for an ambitious company.

“We offer a range of 18 different offices here across a range of sizes, and all served by 100Mbs fibre optic broadband. That means we can move tenants around as their needs change. We also have the option to provide more design and build grow-on space should it ever be needed.

“Being able to keep on growing in the same location was a big pull for us at The Stables,” agrees Dawn.

The company moves in on November 1^st – a chance, says Dawn, “for the next stage of Apples & Oranges to bear fruit”.