LOCAL online retailer Uni Baggage, which transports student belongings to university, has doubled its workforce in preparation for its busiest trading period this month.
Owner Paul Stewart, who established the company in 2009 while at university, is ramping up internal resources in order to service the 20,000 potential new students that travel outside Northern Ireland to study.
This has been the firm’s busiest year to date as the company’s has doubled its turnover since this time last year. To date it has transported more than 1,000 tons of student belongings, travelling 6,000,000 miles to destinations such as Hong Kong, Australia and USA.
Said Paul: “The increase in our workforce is to manage the growth in sales both from online customers as well as from sales over the phone.
“This new term we expect to service thousands of local students wishing to transport their belongings to university in the UK and beyond. Customers can make considerable cost savings – up to 50% in some cases. On average a 30kg bag delivered door–to-door from Northern Ireland to the anywhere in the UK is just £18.99 and Europe from £29.”
It all began for Paul when he was studying at Edinburgh University and spending money on excess baggage fees/courier services transporting his belongings back and forth from Northern Ireland.
He believed there was a business opportunity that wasn’t being utilised and created Uni Baggage, a door-to-door courier service.
“I tested the water for the first year with Uni Baggage while continuing my degree, but when the business started to take off I knew there was an appetite. Being online meant that set up costs were relatively low as I didn’t need premises or staff in the early days,” continued Paul.
“Some of my university friends thought I was mad not looking for a steady job but I had confidence in the idea and it is paying off.
“And this year’s record sales were buoyed by holidaymakers using our service over the summer to save money on airline excess baggage costs.”