New funds injection for Lylalife
ACOUNTY Durham incontinence product supplier is set for growth after securing a second North East Fund investment through NEL Fund Managers.
Durham-based Lylalife supplies urinary incontinence products which are delivered to customers through a monthly repeat order service and one-off purchases.
The business was founded in 2019 by a team of directors with experience of supplying similar product ranges to the care home sector and the NHS with financial and marketing experience.
It received a six-figure investment from the North East Small Loan Fund in 2021 to help ramp up its marketing and customer acquisition, resulting in its customer base growing to more than 8,500 buyers across the UK.
The management team has now gone back to NEL to secure a further six-figure investment, this time from the North East Growth Capital Fund, to support the development of a CRM and management reporting app.
The app will provide live information against its key performance indicators, such as the buying behaviours of its customers.
Two new jobs are expected to be created as the business grows this year, which will take the Lylalife team into double figures, while new products are also set to be developed.
Managing director Wayne Dobson said: “We’ve learned a great deal about ourselves and our customers over the last couple of years and are ready to put that knowledge to good use in growing the business.
“Our bespoke customer relationship management app is shaped precisely to our needs and gives us immediate access to a great deal
more data that we can analyse and act on quickly and easily.
“We expect that the greater insight it will provide in identifying the most effective ways of acquiring and retaining customers will have a tangible impact on our growth, and we’ll be building our customer service and sales team to help manage the increase in demand we’re expecting.
“The NEL team understands our people and our business model, and
when we were looking for the capital required for the next stage of our growth strategy, it made clear sense to extend our relationship.”
Jane Siddle, senior investment executive at NEL Fund Managers, added: “Lylalife has built a strong position in an expanding niche market and the more detailed management information that it will now be able to access will underpin the next stages of its development.”
Our bespoke customer relationship management app is shaped precisely to our needs Wayne Dobson