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Online company helps local trade
Sunday, November 23, 2008 By Cheryl Rickard
Paul Brugger may have been born in Britain, but he can now claim to be a ‘local’ in Cork - in more ways than one.

Three and a half years ago, Brugger married Catherine, a native of Mallow. When their son was born 18 months ago, the couple took stock of their lifestyle and decided to move to Ireland.

Brugger set about looking for a job that would allow him to spend more time with his family. He came across CityLocal, an online advertising company that has been in operation in Britain for three years, and bought the franchise for Cork.

‘‘CityLocal ticked all the boxes,” said Brugger, who had worked as a senior ITmanager delivering software to banks and financial institutions.

CityLocal advertises businesses and services, as well as offering local news and events listings. Brugger said he was pleased with the performance of the site to date,with 50,000 hits last month, of which 20,000 were unique visitors.

Brugger said that the site attracted listings from a broad spectrum of companies, from guesthouses to bus companies. Many clients are firms offering wedding services. He said some companies used their CityLocal listing instead of having a dedicated website.

There is a set-up fee of €149 and then the cost of a listing is €35 a month before Vat - just over €1 a day. ‘‘We don’t have a fixed term or contract, which means businesses aren’t committing to a large outlay,” said Brugger. That said, one business has paid in advance for its listing for the next three years, while another has told Brugger that all of its online custom comes through CityLocal.

In terms of competition, Brugger said: ‘‘There are brand names such as Golden Pages and Your Local. We aren’t a brand name and we don’t need to be, because of the results we achieve on Google and other search engines.”

Brugger hopes CityLocal Cork can become a one-stop shop for locals and tourists needing local information.

‘‘From a business perspective, I would like to expand so I can service the satellite towns more effectively - ideally having a representative in each area,” he said.

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