High Street TV smashes through targets
THRIVING Yorkshire business High Street TV is smashing through its targets as it looks set to achieve a record 70% increase in growth.
The Harrogate-based retail company offers a combination of selling goods through its TV channel, the High Street TV website and through partnerships with retailers which stock its products so customers can buy them in store.
Founded in 2008 by directors Andrew Malcher and Jim Coleman, the successful business has continued to flourish, in a time when many retail businesses have disappeared from the high street.
Executive chairman Andrew Malcher said: “We have been profitable every year for the past five years and this year we should smash through turnover of about £35m and expect to get to £60m- £70m within the next two years. We also have a very large export business we are growing and I expect international business sales to grow to £50m in the next three years. We expect to see 70% growth next year.”
The rapidly growing business’s As Seen On High Street TV dedicated retail areas are based in a plethora of major retailers including Asda, Next, Boots, John Lewis, Debenhams and Argos.
The business has more than 5,000 locations across retailers and deals with 35 different retail groups.
The firm also owns the rights to major products including Zumba and has recently completed a “massive” deal with Disney to sell its Stompeez slippers.
“More and more retailers are giving us more and more locations,” Malcher said.
“Our ability to grow to 12,000 retailers is definitely on the horizon.”
Despite being a hugely popular industry in the US, Malcher said the concept is still relatively unique to the UK market. He added that High Street TV is the largest infomercial producer in the UK, with up to 100 hours per day of infomercials. It is shown on three different channels.
The business started in Malcher’s barn but today has a state-of-the-art studio in Harrogate, as well as one in Los Angeles.
It employs 82 people at its Yorkshire base, but Malcher said this will increase to over 100 by the middle of 2014.
Jon Denny, a former Hollywood producer and minority shareholder, heads up the studio in Los Angeles shooting infomercials with celebrities.
High Street TV also manufactures items and has recently launched its own product, Slim Sip, in conjunction with a Swiss medical group. The product has been launched in 82 countries. High Street said 30% of its products are manufactured by themselves.
The business is considering launching in shopping centres with concession stores and is experimenting with this idea.
“The biggest challenge for us right now is managing our growth. We have so much growth at such a fast pace that we have to manage the decisions and decide what we invest in next.” Malcher added.
“We have got a very firm model and invest in our people heavily to create new products faster and bring products to market faster.”
Malcher and business partner Coleman have been in the industry for 13 years and have launched a number of other channels including the Golf Channel which was bought by JJB and the American Shopping Channel which was sold to media entrepreneur Richard Desmond in 2002.
