Has the internet breathed new life into Warwickshire’s economy?

A few years ago, Adam Gore was broke, with £30,000 debts and only his dream of running his own company and a belief that internet shopping was the future.

Today he runs an online gift company from a warehouse in Southam which employs hundreds - albeit temporarily - every Christmas.

Working evenings on top of a day job as an automotive engineer and designer, he and three friends started find-me-a-gift.co.uk in 2000 out of frustration at not being able to find unusual presents.

He said: “It was really frustrating trying to find good gifts for people. You could never find anything different or unusual or exciting.”

But the site’s launch came just after the dot.com bubble burst, and with £40,000 debts and little growth in the first 30 months, he took on the firm alone.

Since then it has grown from a bedroom to a Kineton warehouse and now its Southam headquarters. With 28 permanent staff it takes on 200 temporary staff to cope with the Christmas rush, when orders soar from 1,000 to 15,000 a day.

The Radford Semele travels the world looking for new gifts, and admits that he must compete with people not just on the UK mainland but Jersey-based competitors like Amazon and stay in touch with people’s budgets.

Mr Gore said: “It’s an interesting situation because it’s so easy to compare prices on the internet. It’s getting more and more competitive because margins are being cut.”

Last year was one of his hardest, when he believes media scare stories about snow stopping the post caused a drop in orders.

Some would say the firm has made its fortune at the expense of high street shops, but he believes the threat to the high street comes not from online, but from shopping malls and retail parks.

With the cost of setting up a website as low as £100, he said shopkeepers would be wise to invest.

He said: “You have to adapt. Anybody can start a website and if you’re a high street shop and you’re struggling you might find a website generates more money than your shop.”

One man who has adapted is David Way of Present Days in Swan Street, Warwick. The shop launched its website six weeks ago and Mr Way explained he had gone online as an “extension” of the shop because many customers now expected it.

Although it is too early to have figures, Mr Way expects a different kind of customer and says he has been selective about what is online.

He added: “It’s very different buying for faceless people who are looking at computer screens at 2am from having the interaction with real life customers.”

Like Mr Gore with his warehouse full of gifts, Mr Way makes around 60 per cent of his money before Christmas, and like this competitor the one thing he fears most is not competition, but the weather.

He added: “We really hope we don’t get the snow we had last year because that’s what clobbered us.”

A new bike is one of the classic Christmas presents. Broadribbs bicycle shop has been trading in Bedford Street, Leamington for 21 years and has branches in Bicester and Wales, but has had an online offshoot discountcyclesdirect for the past seven.

Owner Ian Allison said faced with many customers coming into the shop for advice and then buying online, he had no choice but to react.

He says the website has not only enabled him to keep his shops open, but buy in bulk and pass on savings in his shops.

He said: “From my point of view, if you can’t beat them, join them.

“It took a while to figure out a way that was fair to both sets of customers. The bottom line is you give the customer what they want, so I’m happy to play in both markets.”

But a shop that’s not playing is also thriving. You would expect Keith Smith of Warwick Books to fear the might of Amazon, which can offer books for pounds less than he can.

But Mr Smith said his shop bought and sold through Amazon, and takings are up between 14 and 20 per cent for each of the past three weeks in Warwick, with similar results in Kenilworth.

He reserves his venom for supermarkets and others who sell books at below cost price.

He said: “It’s the same as any other trade. Supermarkets have destroyed bakers and greengrocers. Supermarkets devaluing books making them look as though they ought to be cheap.”

Warwick and Kenilworth Books both have websites, but do not sell books directly, instead promoting events and give people a sense of the people behind the shops.

He wants Waterstones to succeed, as it is almost the last chain with a presence in the high street selling books, and the precious commodity that links him to Mr Gore with his warehouse of unusual presents.

He said: “Books are seen as good value. They are not expensive but it shows you put some thought into it.”