Shropshire retailer has sights set on £100m target

ChoiceShops has also restructured its business ahead of a drive to increase turnover to as much as £100 million in the next 10 years.

The company has now moved from its 13,000 sq ft warehouse in Stafford Park, Telford, to a new 54,000 sq ft site, which is also much higher, elsewhere on the same estate.

At present, half of that space is sub-let, but within nine months ChoiceShops will take over the full site as its plots its expansion. The company will also add a physical shop to its premises.

Meanwhile, ChoiceShops will also alter its brand as it looks to increase business.

IT manager Simon Watts said: "We have two aspects, which are healthcare and horticulture, and both are under the banner of ChoiceShops at present.

"We are going to be rebranding healthcare as Viva Medi.

"We are a four-year-old company, and that side has grown to about £4 million worth of sales in that time. We have a mission statement that says we will be largely a supplier of non-pharmaceutical medical supplies, and in 10 years we will be turning over £100 million."

The medical supplies provided by ChoiceShops, a previous winner of a Shropshire Business Award which supplies around 35 staff, will include mobility and incontinence products.

It could be expanded into Europe, Mr Watts said, as the brand grows.

Meanwhile, the horticultural element of the business, the smaller contributor to the company's existing £7 million turnover, will also be expanded.

"On the gardening side we are aiming to be the largest online garden centre in the UK and will look at expanding when we have done that.

"We are a fairly well off company and have the capital to do this. We want to make sure we are the best we can be."

County firm Shropshire ITC won the contract to completely recable to the premises, and boss Vince Dovey said: "Having worked with ChoiceShops before we fully understood that it was critical that SITC's contribution to the premises move was completed to an extremely tight timescale and that the systems worked first time."

"Given the nature of their clients requirements we understood that when it came to the physical move of equipment and lines it was critical that the systems were down for the shortest amount of time possible"

"I was therefore delighted that due to the preparation work of our engineers we were able to move ChoiceShops phone system from the old site to the new site and have it back working in less than 30 minutes."