How we've helped Bluefruit

Growth & Skills Hub case study

Business overview

Bluefruit Software, based in Redruth, is an encouraging skills and growth story. The embedded software company was named the Best Place to Work and Growth Business of the Year at the 2019 Cornwall Business Awards.

Paul Massey, the director of Bluefruit, started the company 19 years ago. Back then, it was just him working from his flat with his dog at his feet. His business has grown exponentially since, now employing 70 people – developers, testers and ‘quality specialists’. Paul strongly believes the company’s investment in its people has been critical to success. 

“The main difficulty in navigating growth is actually managing the variety of different problems that hit the business.  Really, I think the success that’s got us to where we are now is the success in the power of the staff through that growth. That’s probably been the biggest challenge but also the biggest success,” explains Paul. 

“Core to our business is delivering quality software and what that means is that we need to find customers who understand the value in investing in quality. It also means finding people who take pride in their work and want to deliver quality solutions.”

As a high growth business, our approach to growth has never been to push for it but really work hard at removing any barriers. The Growth Hub has really helped us by connecting us to partners who can help remove those barriers.

Paul

How we helped

Through its network of business links, the Growth Hub has connected Bluefruit to useful partners which have helped the company remove barriers to growth.

Bluefruit's team of directors have also worked closely with the Skills Hub to review the company's future training and skills needs. With sustained growth on the horizon, the directors are looking at opportunities to strengthen their leadership team and customer service even further.

"Investing in skills is critical to us. Cornwall has a deep pool of raw talent which is beneficial to us provided we can deliver training for that talent," said Paul.

He continued:

"We offer weekly training sessions for all our staff but it's sometimes a challenge for us to deliver all that internally, so we spoke to the Skills Hub about the local offer."

"I would recommend other businesses speaking to the Skills Hub and thinking about how their training can be delivered by local suppliers."

 

 

 

 

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The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth Hub from May 2016 -  June 2023 was part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.  The project received £2,848,591.49 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. 

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Skills Hub from October 2017 - June 2023 was part funded by the European Social Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership. The project  received £2,885,993 of funding from the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England.

Business name Bluefruit
Website https://www.bluefruit.co.uk/
Contact number +44 (0) 333 577 7111
Contact email [email protected]
Bluefruit software
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Investing in skills is critical to us