SALES SOAR AT STEWART GOLF

Business almost doubled in size last year at Gloucester golf trolley manufacturer Stewart Golf.

The company saw total sales increase by 93 per cent. Against a backdrop of the Coronavirus pandemic, many golfers took to the fairways for exercise. For a number of golf courses, walking the course was the only option and this helped lead to an unprecedented surge in demand for trolleys.

Stewart Golf built 65 per cent more of its iconic X Series electric trolleys than in 2019 and production of the R1-S Push increased by 51 per cent.

The company also successfully launched the new Q Follow after four years of design and development.

Stewart Golf builds its machines by hand in Gloucester, so it didn’t experience any of the delays other businesses had to endure for containers to arrive from the Far East.

While UK sales grew by 33 per cent, exports soared and now account for almost 75 per cent of sales. Stewart Golf sold to 45 countries throughout the world including the USA, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, and South Korea. European sales also increased by 16 per cent despite Brexit uncertainty throughout the year.

A technology start-up that joined the HS2 COVID-19 Innovation Challenge last Spring has secured a major deal to supply work site social distancing technology to one of HS2’s main works civil contractors.

Contractor Eiffage Kier Ferrovial BAM awarded Malvern Science Park-based PLINX a contract to supply 1,500 helmetmounted devices for site workers.

The PLINX devices use wireless technology to accurately monitor how close workers are to each other; if they are within two metres of another person, the devices will beep, vibrate and flash, notifying the users to keep their distance.

The anonymous data from these devices will provide Health and Safety managers with valuable insights to manage population density, monitor pinch points on sites and collate data to enable effective contact tracing.

PLINX Founder Tommy Williams said: “It is refreshing to see how well HS2 and EKFB adopt new technologies, such as ours, to address their biggest challenges.”

Business formations grew by 14 per cent last year. At the start of 2020 there were 5.94 million small businesses with up to 49 employees.

And that number swelled by a record of 772,002 during the year, according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs’ annual analysis of Companies House data.

Consumer businesses increased significantly, with business startups in the wholesale and retail industry growing 60.5 per cent year-on-year and totalling 190,379.

Online retail start-ups more than doubled, totalling 43,127. New businesses selling computers, sporting goods, games and toys also grew strongly last year.