A BLACKBURN web design company has seen its sales jump by more than 50% compared to last year despite the economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

Web development, ecommerce and digital marketing agency eBusiness UK has found that even as the country struggles to recover from the crisis, contracts from other firms throughout Lancashire and beyond have kept coming, with more than 12 signed in May, June and July of this year.

These contracts have included designing a new website for mobile phone retailer Chorley Xchange, and leading a new search engine optimisation campaign for Blackburn based IT services provider Nybble.

eBusiness UK Director Latif Kothia, who founded the company with brothers Kam and Nasir in 1998, said: “When the scale of the pandemic first became apparent, many businesses became nervous and began planning to cut costs.

“But as time passed and we had the opportunity to assess the situation, the business community realised that we could all work together to overcome this.

“Historically speaking, it is the brands that invest the most in raising their profile during tough times that emerge in the strongest position, and I think that’s what we are seeing here.

“We are working with organisations from a range of industries but what they all have in common is a desire to be proactive and take control of the situation.”

Further afield from Lancashire the company has added Cumbrian power transmission provider Driveline Engineering and London based internet provider Luminet to its roaster of partners.

eCommerce’s strategy of allowing clients to spread payments across a longer period of time, rather than pay the full amount up front has helped the firm continue to grow through difficult times as the national economy shrinks and businesses across the spectrum struggle with job losses and a drop in productivity.

Mr Kothia said: “We’re thrilled to have won so many new contracts with established, well-respected Lancashire brands but we are also particularly pleased to have strengthened our relationship with Luminet, which is thriving in a particularly competitive market with the help of our specialist digital marketing services.”

“The pandemic put a lot of stresses and strains on cash reserves but we didn’t want that to stand in the way of anyone launching a timely new project, so this was our way of doing our bit to support the local business community.”