North East marketing and tech company REDU Limited has appointed renowned financial expert Paul Marshall as a non-executive director to their board. Paul Marshall joins the team with immediate effect to strengthen the existing board and support the medium term growth and development of the company. Currently Managing Director of the family office Vesuvius Ventures Limited, Marshall has held senior financial roles in a number of public companies including Rank Group Plc, Hard Rock Inc, Forte Plc, PartyGaming Plc and the Granada Group Plc.
REDU was set up approximately 4 years ago by entrepreneur Gary Hunter, quickly followed by NE businessman Sam Morton and Chairman Neil Stephenson. After rapid growth and working up through the ranks, Emilie Hampton was appointed as Managing Director,allowing Hunter and Morton to work strategically on their brands, developing a highly engaged social audience of over a million online users. The current fold of brands includes Ashleigh Money Saver, Ashleigh Plus Size, Ashleigh Home, Ashleigh Mother & Baby, Ashleigh Kids and the Ashleigh app. Choosing to stay “behind the scenes” thus far, Gary Hunter, Sam Morton are now looking to share news of REDU’s success going forward.
Paul Marshall said “the aim is to get REDU in the top 500 companies and we will do that by taking this to international market. There is potential for the company to be agile. We will be scaling up, be the ones to watch.”
Marshall continued “This next phase of overseas expansion is the natural next step for this fast growing, high performing company. The business is at a crucial point in its development. We will look to attain new scale and growth beyond the UK market, internationalizing the business, adding new revenue streams and new product streams”.
Chairman of REDU, Neil Stephenson said “the interesting thing about REDU is that they have a very strong management team in Gary & Sam and they have managed the company to an impressive turnover from their base in the North East. The next stage five year plan will be highly profitable and successful, scaling up, double and trebling the revenue”.
REDU will look to take on approximately 5 to 10 further employees to help grow and scale the company, working with the right partners to achieve the five year plan.
Gary Hunter said “while we already have an active buying market of over one million women in the UK, it really is just the tip of the iceberg with huge potential for growth. There are vast numbers of people looking for the “best deals” and we have identified that the plus size fashion market is exceptionally bouyant. This is a main point of focus and longer term there is vast potential to take the brands overseas”.
Sam Morton said “turnover has grown significantly year on year and will be around £2.5m at the end of this financial year. We have a net profit of around 65%.