Vanaways was set up in a portakabin in Avonmouth, outside Bristol, in 2020 by two fleet industry professionals who thought they could provide a better, more customer-focused service than the outdated sales model from manufacturers and showrooms.
Four years later and the business has grown to employ more than 50 people and turns over an impressive £100m a year.
We’ve worked with them for over a year, deploying a new strategy away from pure trade press coverage and pivoting also towards regional business media around the UK, using client stories to illustrate the benefits of their business model to the SME owners they’re targeting.
We’re helping them achieve their next ambitious goal of doubling turnover to £200m in the next two years.
17 stories issued in the first year
more than 100 articles in the past 12 months
reaching and audience of 3.7 million readers
trade press partnerships successfully executed
Vanaways’ previous agent was doing an adequate job of generating coverage in trade press – fine if they were selling to brokers and manufacturers, but not great for the SME audience. So we encouraged the company to start producing stories about the businesses they work with, to get regional press coverage read by hundreds of thousands of potential new customers.
We’ve sent out dozens of stories about Vanaways and the businesses they’ve been helping around the UK. Journalists love our content – great photos, newsy content about growing companies investing in their fleet.
Many of the publications we work with host roundtable events and seminars, inviting senior leaders from the region to take part in discussions and networking events. It’s a great way for leaders to meet their colleagues in similarly growing businesses, as well as providing some media coverage, too.
We’ve worked with industry titles to position Vanaways’ senior management as thought leaders – they have a disruptive business model based on great connections combined with AI. Chances are it’s the way of the future, and their vision is one which deserves promotion.
