Bannatyne looks to build a digital empire

Bannatyne Digital is a partnership with voiceover artist Peter Dickson, who works on shows including the hit ITV show. It will target entrepreneurs and small businesses to provide website design, e-commerce, search engine optimisation and social media services.

Bannatyne said he believed the company, which is based in Dorset, will fill a gap in the market and that websites and social media were now a vital part of a company's assets .

In an interview last week, the Scots entrepreneur urged business owners and leaders to make more use of Twitter to actively sell their products and services.

"As an owner of a company, you have got to do it - the value of it is ridiculous," he said. Bannatyne has almost 300,000 followers on his Twitter account and regularly posts offers for his hotels and spas.

But he said it was important companies made the effort to interact with customers and potential customers who followed them through social media to maintain an "online personality".

Bannatyne Digital is currently working on a redesign of the Bannatyne Group's websites.

After a dishonourable discharge from the Royal Navy, Clydebank-born Bannatyne launched his entrepreneurial career in his twenties when he bought an ice-cream van for 450. He built a fleet of 45 vans, which he sold on for 25,000.

He invested the proceeds in a care home venture, which he grew to a chain of 36 and which he sold ten years later for 46 million before moving on to build his current fitness clubs business.

Dickson is on the board of a number of companies, including Spokenworld Audio which markets talking books.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last week showed that online sales accounted for one in 11 of the UK's retail sales in February.

A total of 474m was spent each week via the internet, accounting for 9 per cent of total retail sales, excluding car fuel.