Alan and Sally Huxham are moving with the times as their office supplies business moves in to a new showroom in the north of the island.
Vannin Officepoint had been internet based for the last five years but has now opened a showroom in premises opposite Milntown just outside Ramsey.
‘It’s the start of a new era for the business and we are very excited about the future,’ said Sally.
The hard-working couple, who live in Ramsey and have three children, are always keeping up-to-date with what offices are wanting these days in the island.
The business scooped the dealership of the year award in last year’s Simply Office awards beating off stiff competition from across the British Isles.
Alan, 37, and Sally, 39, stock thousands of office items ranging in size from paper clips to printers and office furniture.
Among the chairs is something called the shiatsu massage chair.
This ingenious chair has internal heat massage pads. On the day the showroom was launched to island customers, Business News tried out a cream coloured version of the chair and was most impressed. At first it felt like someone was tickling your back but there’s no doubting it looks set to be a popular seller for the couple.
Another office chair in the showroom is something known as ‘the Goliath’ which has the strength to have a person of 27 stone seated in it!
Sally said Vannin Officepoint was originally a family business with a family shop in Parliament Street, Ramsey.
But around five years ago Alan and Sally decided to grow the commercial side of the business with an internet presence.
She said: ‘We went purely that way and it worked and we have really good systems that back everything up and everything runs seamlessly.
‘But the thing is we noticed that more and more as we grew people wanted more products like furniture and chair s and they wanted to actually come and try and it and see the physical side of it. So that way online does not really work as well. So now we are online and we have the showroom as well.’
Sally said that she was pleased to report that even during the economic climate the company was still growing.
Sally said these days a lot of people worked from home and were looking for office furniture.
The couple had been looking for the right premises over the last year and the 1,400 sq ft building fitted the bill.
Sally said: ‘We have in excess of 20,000 products available. We have always been in the north. We supply island wide but it’s nice for the north. Businesses in the north seem to be holding up well along with other Manx businesses.’
And they revealed that even in these days of emails and computers good old yellow post-it notes and coloured pens were still wanted from time to time