ONE Barnard Castle company has tasted success since launching its website, www.sweetsfor treats.co.uk

The Shop, a family-run general convenience store, specialising in confectionary, realised the Internet provided the perfect opportunity to promote its products to a wider clientele.

Owner Kim Gulliver said their stock of both old-fashioned and new sweets had become very popular. "People would come into the shop to buy them for themselves and for friends and relatives abroad. We would package them up and send them overseas, which gave me the idea of creating a website."

Kim learnt more about it on a course organised by One NorthEast, then built the website.

She said: "I wasn't sure what to expect once we went live, but when we received our first order I was amazed. It was an order from a lady in the UK, asking me to send some cherry lips, sherbet lips and floral gums to her mum as a Mother's Day gift."

"The first order from overseas was even more exciting - it was from Israel. This time it was for a batch of Dolly Mixtures for a child's birthday party."

Now Kim has caught the IT bug. "One NorthEast is assisting me with the installation of a satellite broadband system. This will enable me to open an Internet caf, allowing visitors to the area to check out the tourist attractions in the area through logging on to our website."