25. James and James

Founders: James Hyde and James Strachan
Founded: February 2010
Website: www.ecommercefulfilment.com 

In their previous roles at an international health food business, Cambridge graduates James Hyde and James Strachan were trying to source a company to dispatch online orders and found themselves in disbelief at ‘a 19th century approach’ to order fulfilment. Spotting a potential business opportunity and convinced they could reinvent the wheel, they set about creating an ecommerce and order fulfilment warehouse that could offer accurate and same-day despatch of online orders to customers on behalf of retailers. Incorporating a technology lead approach, James and James uses the cloud to offer real-time order processing, live reporting and full-integration with shopping carts and couriers. Clients can login to an online portal where their order can be tracked at every stage of transition. Immediately popular, their approach saw the duo secure a client that turned out to be 400 times bigger than they initially realised, allowing them to scale the business fast. With projected growth of 225%, Hyde and Strachan have ambitious expansion plans, including a second warehouse facility and targeting national, medium-sized corporations.