Roy Stephenson is the Grandad in MadeByGrandad.

A former architect and co-founder of a successful software company in the 70’s Roy is now partially retired. As grandchildren came into the world, he resurrected some of his old skills and started making children’s clothes, hence the name ‘MadeByGrandad’. A personal need for a new ‘man-bag’ for himself led to the creation of a range of messenger bags, iPad cases, totes and more, all handmade by Grandad and now marketed around the world.

MadebyGrandad enjoys the support of several local galleries which offer his products in Northumberland, but it is principally an internet business hosted at www.madebygrandad.co.uk. Roy processes international enquiries and sales from his small home office/workshop in Rothbury. Orders arrive in his inbox 24 hours a day 7 days per week via BT broadband and are swiftly turned round within a few days. Roy has a BT Infinity superfast broadband package which he says has improved speed and reliability by a factor of 10. Superfast broadband means that website maintenance and order-processing take up less valuable time – time best spent designing and making MadeByGrandad bags.

Here is Roy’s story as to how superfast broadband has made a remarkable improvement to his business.