It’s our Birthday and we’ve come along way in 11 years
USB2U started out in October 2002. We’ve just celebrated our 11th birthday and we’re fast approaching adolescence and the tricky teenage years! It’s been an interesting journey so far and our little company has come a long way during the last 11 years.
Back in 2002 we ran the business from a garage, we had a limited range of products, we had a dial-up Internet connection and a very basic website. Orders were taken over the web or phone and then re-keyed into a simple accounting package from which we generated invoices and picking and packing notes. Every order was individually weighed and postage stamps of the correct value were put onto each package before being taken “on the school run” to the local village post office!
Most of our business was the sale of first generation USB memory sticks (USB 1.0) with an average storage capacity of 16MB to 64MB. In those early days USB memory sticks were a niche product favoured by the tech savvy. Remember (if you can) that back in 2002 most people were still backing up their files onto 3.5” floppy disk drives or CD’s. By comparison USB sticks were “exotic” and expensive.
A standard 32MB USB stick would retail for around £15, a larger capacity 256MB stick would sell for nearer £40-£50 – significantly more than a floppy disk but much easier to use and much easier to carry around.
Despite the higher price tag sales of USB memory sticks took off and pretty soon we moved to a small business unit in Daventry and we hired our first staff. Sales of USB memory sticks continued to grow spurred on by increases in storage capacity, falling prices and the introduction of USB 2.0.
By 2004 we were getting requests to supply USB memory stick printed with a logo printed on them, not many, but some schools and businesses had recognised the benefits of handing out branded USB sticks and were willing to pay a premium for something that was still not in the mainstream. By way of illustration a quote we gave to a company in October 2004 for 500 x 64MB USB sticks printed with a simple logo on a basic stick was £10.55 + VAT each!
Lead times were also more challenging back in 2004 with the average time from order to delivery at around 3 weeks!
Despite the costs and the relatively long lead times the sale of promotional and branded USB sticks continued to flourish and in 2007 we moved into a new 4,000 Sq ft warehouse/office unit in Northampton where we still run the business from today.
In the last 5 years we have invested heavily in our own in-house design, print, engraving and data-loading capabilities giving us the capability to print, engrave and data load up to 5,000 USB stick per day.
We’ve coupled this with a significant investment in SalesForce (the Worlds leading CRM system) Docusign (the market leaders in e-signature) to allow our customer to e-sign their orders quickly and simply from any PC, Smart Phone or Tablet and we use Lead Forensics to track visitors to our website.
Our team has grown to over 20 people and we’re currently advertising for more sales and support staff, which will increase our headcount to 25.
We now supply thousands of customers with millions of printed and engraved USB sticks and gift boxes every year. We are recognised as one of the leading suppliers of top quality promotional USB memory sticks in Europe and with a strong focus on quality and customer service we’re delighted to have had reviews from over 1,000 customers on Trustpilot (an independent 3rd party review website) who collectively have given us a 5* Excellent rating
Today a typical USB stick used for promotional purposes has around 2GB to 4GB of storage, costs £3-£4 per stick and can be supplied fully personalized and data-loaded in as little as 24hrs! A far cry from where we were in 2002. The futures going to be interesting!
