Worthing firm's Fresh way to entice a TV Dragon (From The Argus)

Worthing firm's Fresh way to entice a TV Dragon

10:26am Tuesday 16th June 2009

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COMPANY PROFILE Name: Fresh Egg

Business nature: Website design and search engine optimisation

Established: 2000

Location: Worthing

Number of employees: 27

Annual turnover: £2.5 million

Like most of us, Adam Stafford used to watch Dragons’ Den to have a good laugh at the inept inventions and crackpot ideas.

The 32-year-old could never see himself going before the panel of tough-talking entrepreneurs, begging for cash.

After all, his company, Worthing-based Fresh Egg, which he founded with his sister Pip Stafford, 35, and their friend Lee Colbran, 38, was already a leading player in the field of internet marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO).

Adam said: “I used to watch Dragons’ Den with my girlfriend and would always say that I would never have gone on the programme.

“If you have a successful company, why would you ever want to give away equity?”

This attitude prevailed until Adam bumped into Dragons’ Den star James Caan at last year’s Sussex Enterprise conference.

He said: “James gave me his business card and asked me to phone him. We met for lunch and he was extremely interested in SEO and what we could do.”

What Fresh Egg could do would impress most businesspeople. The company was one of the earliest pioneers of SEO and not only creates websites but also makes sure they are ranked highly on sites such as Google.

Adam said: “More important than building a website is making sure it gets found. There’s no point in having one if nobody can find it.”

Fresh Egg was a company started in Lee’s spare bedroom and has gone on to employ 27 people, with high-profile clients such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Norwich Union, Liberty department store and VisitWales.

Adam boasts they often make “serious money” for their clients, giving the example of an online travel agent. The industry is generally about 20% down in the recession but Fresh Egg’s client has seen sales rise by 25%.

Adam added: “They have never even printed a brochure.”

No wonder James Caan was impressed.

Adam said: “We met for lunch and discussed what we had achieved for our clients. James became very interested when I said that, for some of them, we had delivered £27 profit for every £1 they spent with us.”

Within a month, James had agreed to invest in Fresh Egg and he is now company chairman.

Despite his initial reservations of being helped by a Dragon, Adam has no regrets.

He said: “What sparked my imagination was that James had a team of knowledgeable people with some fantastic backgrounds.

“He has experts in legal matters, finance, human resources and marketing, who would normally charge hundreds of pounds an hour for consultancy work.”

James’ charity work – he has helped build a school in India as well as helping other good causes – has also inspired Adam.

He said: “I am trying to do what I can locally and was recently appointed a governor of Worthing High School.”

Adam has also set up The Voice, an online forum where students can put forward their views on issues of the day so their opinions can be heard by MPs and other influential people.

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