A Glasgow-based company that provides language and literacy materials and programmes for children from birth to five years old is targeting increased sales into the Middle East market after finalising a deal with a distributor in the United Arab Emirates this week.
Alphabet Babies, which is one of the most successful companies to come through the Entrepreneurial Spark business accelerator programme in the Gorbals, was founded in 2011 and for a while experimented with selling its materials through a network of franchisees. But last year the company established a website, through which most of its sales to parents and nurseries are now made.
The programmes use puppets, games, songs, drama and books to make language learning as fun as possible.
Founder Alexis Viswanathan said that the company has so far sold into the US, Turkey and Indonesia but particularly strong sales in the UAE in recent months led to the decision to find a distributor in Dubai.
The company was identified as have high-growth potential - categorised as having the potential to grow turnover to £400,000 - allowing it to benefit from a range of extra support from the business support Business Gateway programme. This year Viswanathan expects sales to reach £160,000 and to reach £400,000 by 2017.
At an early stage, Viswanathan joined the Women into Business group, which brings together new and existing female entrepreneurs. The company, which now employs three people, has received £20,000 of support from the Scottish Edge fund.
Prior to founding the company along with her mother (a former primary and nursery head teacher), Viswanathan worked as an English teacher for 14 years.
Viswanathan decided to found the company after giving birth to twin boys and attending lots of baby classes. "I wanted a class that would introduce me to great books for my babies, give them a head start and have fun with the patterns of speech," she explains.
"I also wanted it to involve me just as much as the babies and that is when I realised I would have to develop this."
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