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Making his Mark
TODAY marks the launch of a talent search to find South Tyneside's brightest entrepreneurs.
This week we are focusing on five successful business people, starting with Mark Berriman, who owns the UK's largest online supplier of pet products.
His company is on target to turn over 5m this year.
It seems a long time since Mark cracked open a bottle of bubbly after his first company was granted a licence to sell alcohol over the Internet.
The rest, as they say, is history for the-then 21-year-old entrepreneur from South Shields.
Mark first started showing potential as a businessman as an eight-year-old in junior school, when his teacher gave his class the task of coming up with a school project.
While all the other kids were coming up with ideas for new toys or sweets, Mark created a business plan for a bus company. It's fair to say that he stood out from the start.
"All I've ever wanted to do was go into business, I've always been interested in it," the 28-year-old said.
"While my mates were dreaming about becoming footballers and lawyers, I was dreaming about putting a suit on and going into business, it's just something I'm passionate about.
"I suppose it was a bit strange for someone so young, but it's not done me any harm."
He gained eight GCSEs at school but decided A-levels were not for him. Instead, being keen on computers, he joined a computer programming course at Newcastle College.
It was in 2000 when Mark and his dad Tony Nye, 56, came up with the idea of setting up a website to sell alcoholic gifts after Mark's mother, who owned an off-licence, had huge success selling gifts over the counter, direct to the public.
So, keeping it in the family, Mark went into full-time business with mum Janet, 50, when they set up Gifts2Drink – a web-based supplier of luxury drinks and gifts from their base at Tedco's South Shields business centre.
Business was booming in their first year, and Gifts2Drink had a turnover of 500,000.
During a rapid two years of growth, Gifts2Drink became a finalist for the UK's regional e-commerce awards, and Mark himself was shortlisted for The Express national newspaper entrepreneur of the year award, which he narrowly missed out on.
Mark left Gifts2Drink in October 2003 to form Viverdi Ltd – a consultancy company.
While helping others set up and grow their businesses, Mark got the itch to go back on the frontline in trading, and got his inspiration from an unusual source – his new dog Charlie, a chocolate-coloured labrador.
Mark, who has a one-year-old daughter Hanah with his partner of 10 years Shelley Ockleford, 30, said: "When I got Charlie I was looking on the Internet to buy stuff for him, but I couldn't find anything.
"It just got me thinking and it was then that the next idea was born."
Established in October 2004, Pet-Supermarket became Viverdi's first wholly-owned Internet brand in August 2004 and has quickly grown to become the market leader in the online pet supplies marketplace by working closely with the leading manufacturers in the business.
Mark achieved his target of creating 500,000 in just six months – half the time it took for his first project, Gifts4Drinks, to reach that figure.
Today, Pet-Supermarket is the UK's largest online supplier of pet products, and the future is looking very exciting for Mark and his team.
In September 2005 he bought back Gifts2Drink and merged it with Viverdi Ltd.
Viverdi Ltd moved in August 2005 to its new 11,000sq ft warehouse in Jarrow, and with a choice of more than 3,500 products, it is by far the biggest independent store in Tyne and Wear, and has the largest online range in the UK.
And last year, Mark won The North East Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007.
But he says the success he now enjoys comes after years of hard work and patience.
He added: "For the first couple of years I was working 100 hours per week, and coming home with nothing. It was all just being pumped back into the company.
"Now I'm still working the same hours, but at least I'm rewarded for my efforts. It's hard for me because I've got a young family now, but they appreciate what I'm trying to do and they know it's what I enjoy.
"One of the main messages I'd give anyone is just stick by the business at the start because that's the hardest time, and also try to use the advice consultants give you, because that can be invaluable.
"My secret is being able to sell things, I always have been able to do that for some reason. If you can sell things, then you'll do well in business.
"If I can, then you can."
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Weather for South Shields
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: -2 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South
