Chris White is now looking to expand his Harrogate-based printer cartridge business, following many years of experience in the trade.
Chris is born and bred Harrogate, having gone to St Aidan’s School before working in the hotel trade and then for Cartridge World selling franchises. From that he bought a franchise in Leeds, which he operated from 2011 to 2014.
Chris White said:
The printer cartridge market is a notoriously tough area to be in. There is also a lot of competition online these days and people often want cheap, but UK-wide there are sales of over 1.5 million each year.
Chris said:
I took a gamble with the franchise and it didn’t work out, it just didn’t make the money that we thought it would. I took the decision that cartridge inks was an area that I wanted to work in and there was potential with a new business model.
Following the Leeds franchise close, Green Ink Cartridges was born. Initially run from Leeds until late 2015 when the decision was made to move the business online and back to Harrogate. The business has traded online since then and now has plans to open a shop this month.
Questioning Chris on why he now believes that this new business will be a success, given he had closed a franchise in Leeds and the Cartridge World (Harrogate) had closed. (update 30 Jan 2017 – the Cartridge World Shop in Harrogate is set to re-open, under new ownership, in February 2017)
Chris said:
I think we live in a world where you need to go above and beyond to keep your customers happy, or they simply move elsewhere.
We have a lot of learning behind us and we believe that we have the right model to develop the business. Online it has already being doing well.
Having run Green Ink Cartridge online for a year, we now have plans to open up a premises. We are in the final stages of signing the contract on the shop, but it will be out of the town centre and have easy parking. We find that people rarely keep a backup cartridge, so when they need a new one they want it then and there. The shop will help meet that need.
We also want to educate people a little around the quality of cartridge that are out there. It’s true that you can get some bargain basement cheap cartridges, but they are not ones we would recommend or sell. We try and offer an optimum price-quality point.And of course we are proud to be part of the local business community in Harrogate. We do what we can do shop local and hope people do the same with us.
The Harrogate ink cartridge business is now moving from online to a dedicated shop on the Claro Road business Park.
Many people will also know Chris from the Katrina Hughes Dance school. Being the son of Katrina, Chris has danced from an early age and been part of many performances at the Royal Hall, the most recent was in October this year. Famously though, he has been retiring from dance for the last 10 years, but there’s always just one more show to do!
