Hopewiser toasts 30 Good years
HOPEWISER, the Altrincham-based address management software specialist is celebrating its 30th birthday with the launch of a new product aimed at saving small firms time and money.
Founder and MD Phil Good, who lauched the business in 1982 in an attic room in his south Manchester home, says the new product will help SMEs produce their own marketing materials in an easy and cost-effective manner.
In the 30 years it has been in business Hopewiser has become a key player in its market place, with more than 40 employees in Altrincham, an office in Australia and some major blue chip customers including Manchester home shopping brand JD Williams – which was the firm’s first-ever client – and the RAC.
Turnover at the business, run by Mr Good and his wife Barbara, is around £4m.
Looking back at the growth of the business, Mr Good said: “It’s not been easy, as
as we have grown, so has all the red tape and regulation, but I am proud of the business and the people who work here – it is very much like one big family.
“It’s a team effort – it’s not just about me,” he adds.
As the head of the family Mr Good, 64, laughs off any suggestion that he will be handing over the reins of the business any time soon: “I’ll probably still be here when I’m 100, just to be awkward, ” he jokes.
As well as being a company run on family values of loyalty, open-ness and honesty, two of Mr Good’s four sons work in the business. Eldest son Matthew runs the Australian arm of Hopewiser, while Jon is a public sector manager.
The new string to the Hopewiser bow is based around the Documailer templating product acquired by the Australian business several years ago,
Mr Good says: “We’ll launch it in the next couple of months – it was used in Australia in a different way, but we can see scope for it to be used differently and there’s huge market potential for SMEs, member clubs and companies which can’t afford to go to a professional printer.
“It’ll provide a simple and cheap way of producing a marketing brochure or printing a company magazine.”
Hopewiser was the first company to develop software using the Royal Mail’s postcode files. Its technology, which finds customers’ full addresses by entering their postcode, is now used by thousands of businesses internationally.
As well as being a successful business, Hopewiser strives to play an active part in its local community, from running an apprenctice scheme for young adults to sponsoring sporting clubs in Cheshire and South Manchester.
