A HYNDBURN firm will be celebrating a very merry Christmas after doubling its annual turnover.

Clayton-le-Moors based IT specialists Cleverboxes is full of festive cheer after recording a remarkable year-end turnover of £12.6m.

The recession busting result comes after the firm set up a service providing goods for the ‘IT savvy’ business buyer.

The firm, which supplies everything from home entertainment products, laptops, cameras and professional IT equipment, has even out-performed the ‘testing’ target it set itself 12 months ago, much to the delight of founder and managing director Vernon Yerkess.

Now it hopes to expand even further by trading on Amazon and eBay.

Mr Yerkess said: “In 2010 we turned over just short of £7m and to double that, given the difficult financial environment, is a marvellous achievement and real credit to all concerned.”

The firm got off the ground just seven years ago and had a first-year turnover of £250,000.

Mr Yerkess said: “Without wanting to appear clever or flippant, we have tried to stick to our plans despite the recession.

“We know what we are good at and have not been afraid to invest and back our judgement during a period of general uncertainty.

“That policy, plus an unswerving commitment to satisfy our customer demands, has stood us in good stead. We have promised and delivered and therein probably lies the key.

“We have pushed ourselves for sure, but never at the risk of being unable to fully satisfy demand.”

Cleverboxes now has a rapidly-increasing UK market and a major presence overseas. Moves to also integrate the main trading website with the likes of Amazon and eBay is said to have produced an ‘immediate result’.

Mr Yerkess said: “We have invested around £200,000 in our website development programme and can now offer four direct routes to market which sees us in a strong competitive position.

“The Amazon/eBay integration and transition has been seamless, producing some excellent early results over the first few weeks. We are very confident that this area will expand still further over the coming weekend and months.”