A UNIVERSITY graduate who set up an online business is planning to expand into the US market.

Ben Dale, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, launched his company selling rugs over the Internet last year while working at a web design agency in the region.

The 23-year-old left his job to concentrate on the online venture full-time, handling a growing number of orders and hoping to export rugs to the US. The company, modern-rugs.co.uk, also won a contract to supply rugs for an ITV makeover show.

"When I set the business up, there wasn't a huge amount of competition but, as with any new firm, it took a while to get off the ground," he said.

"At first, I was taking about four orders a month, but now that figure has risen to about 30.

"I have had a lot of requests from America about sending rugs over there so I am looking into the delivery costs at the moment. America is a huge market compared to the UK, so there is a lot of potential in the future of the firm."

Mr Dale graduated from Northumbria University with a degree in marketing in 2003 and went to work for a website design agency in Newcastle.

"I had always wanted to start my own company so I designed and developed my own website selling rugs while I was working for the agency," he said.

"I concentrated on marketing the company well by ensuring that its web-link would appear on the first page of results for anybody using a search engine to find rugs online.

"It has taken time to build up the company profile and climb up the list on the search engines, but that, I felt, was better than spending thousands of pounds on advertising in order to get the company known to the public."

Mr Dale runs the business from his father's company, Wilsdale Carpets, in Chester Street, Bishop Auckland.

The website offers more than a thousand rugs, which are imported from around the world through suppliers across the UK, and range in price from £40 to £800.

For more information, visit www.modern-rugs.co.uk