People on the move: Eddisons; Textlocal; Citypress; Citypress; Visualsoft; Key Retirement Group
Three months after the launch of its new Liverpool office, property consultant Eddisons has further boosted its presence in the city with the appointment of building surveyor Michael Griffiths as part of a strategic drive to grow the business across Merseyside.
Griffiths joins its Liverpool office as associate director from niche Liverpool building surveying and project management practice Collus Consult. He spent the previous 10 years with Edward Symmons in the city.
Ian Harrington, national head of buildings and projects at Eddisons, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Michael on board. He brings with him over 25 years’ technical experience and his skills complement those of our existing team.
“One of the main growth drivers has been our success in sourcing funding for schools and academies, and Michael will be tasked with servicing this demand across the North West education sector.”
He added: “Michael will also coordinate with colleagues across Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and London so that we can continue to deliver national-scale building projects on a regional basis.”
Griffiths joins colleagues Steven Grindley, David Baker and Robert Diggle, who came on board at Eddisons in September, joining the firm from LSH. The team are all based in Liverpool city centre at the firm’s 1 Old Hall Street offices.
Grindley, director in the Liverpool office, said: “Eddisons continues to invest in Liverpool and Michael’s appointment further strengthens our regional strategy for Merseyside and the North West.
“This latest hire enables us to provide an even greater breadth of services to clients in the area, offering unrivalled knowledge across a broad spectrum of commercial, residential and specialist sectors.”
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Textlocal, an SMS platform company based in Chester, has appointed James Williams as its new head of digital.
The company has celebrated unprecedented growth in 2017, with an increase in headcount of 20% and revenue growth exceeding 30% as the company looks to meet the demand for its services.
Williams joins Textlocal with nearly ten years of experience in digital marketing roles, and will lead the digital team across PPC, search, social media, web and strategy. He also aims to drive business success and integration across all online channels.
Textlocal’s extraordinary growth has led the business to open the doors on some new 2,400sq ft premises on the Bell Meadow Business Park in Pulford.
The new offices have ample space to accommodate Textlocal’s 32 employees and provides a new, bright and engaging work and meeting space.
The offices are also conveniently located for Chester and North Wales and offer inspiring views across lakes and woodland.
Textlocal managing director Jason Palgrave-Jones said: “It’s been an incredibly successful year for Textlocal as we capitalise on the popularity of mobile messaging services. We predict 2018 to be an equally busy year as we work to meet customer demand and develop new products and services to improve mobile marketing and communication opportunities.”
Williams said: “The mobile sector is growing strongly and provides an incredibly stimulating and rewarding opportunity. There are exciting plans in place for 2018 and it’s very exciting to be working with one of the country’s top SMS companies.”
Textlocal was founded in 2005 and employs 32 people in Chester and a further 20 in Malvern and serves a wide variety of clients from all different sectors, from SMEs through to multi-nationals and charities. The innovative, award-winning online platform has helped transform the way businesses, organisations and groups communicate using mobile. Today, the online platform is sending more than 40 million text messages every month.
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Citypress has hired Sky News senior social media producer Sam Elmidoro to join the agency’s growing team.
Elmidoro joins Citypress as senior social media manager and will deliver campaigns and provide strategic advice to clients across the agency.
At Sky News, she managed news output and analytics across all the brand’s social media channels, which have a combined audience of more than 13 million followers. Prior to joining Sky, she worked predominantly in journalism for media including PRWeek and Brand Republic.
Ruth Lee, director of social at Citypress, said: “Sam brings direct experience of delivering news and engaging content to an audience of millions on a daily basis.
“Her news skills and judgement, combined with deep analytics capability, further strengthens our growing social team of strategy, analytics, content and community management specialists.”
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Gavin Lowther has been promoted to head of digital at Manchester-based ecommerce and digital agency Visualsoft.
In his new role Lowther will oversee and evolve Visualsoft’s digital marketing offering, by taking ownership of the company’s digital services, including SEO, PPC, affiliate marketing, email marketing, social media, conversion rate optimisation and strategy.
As part of the senior leadership team, his main objective will be to drive performance across all marketing channels and to ensure Visualsoft remains continuously innovative.
Lowther is a long-serving employee at Visualsoft, where his career has spanned the last eight years. Originally joining the company as an online marketing accounts manager, he has risen through the ranks, going on to lead the conversion rate optimisation team before taking up his new role as head of digital.
Based in Teesside, Newcastle and Manchester, Visualsoft has a growing team of more than 200 staff who specialise in the design, build, support and marketing of online stores for retailers across the UK.
Dean Benson, chief executive of Visualsoft, said: “Gavin is already an integral member of the Visualsoft team, with a fantastic record of achievement. He has vast experience across both multiple marketing channels and in general retail, so has a clear understanding of client requirements and processes.”
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Preston-based Key Retirement Group has appointed Steve Groves as chairman as it positions itself for further growth following its £208m acquisition by global private markets investment manager Partners Group last year.
Groves comes with a wealth of experience and is recognised by many as a pioneer and innovator in financial services.
He has more than 20 years’ experience within the insurance and retirement sectors, with much of that time spent leading partnership assurance, later Partnership Plc, where he progressed to group chief executive.
During his 11-year career with Partnership, he was instrumental in building the company into one of the strongest enhanced annuity and equity release businesses in the UK.
In the five years preceding the group’s flotation he led a major expansion of the business which resulted in sales growth of 400%.
Following the £1.6bn flotation, he remained group chief executive and continued in the role during the merger with Just Retirement in August 2015, before leaving the business in 2016.
He joins Key Retirement at the start of its new growth phase and will play an instrumental part in working with the established team to drive continued distribution growth, broaden the group’s product portfolio, foster further product innovation and ensure housing equity and ways of unlocking that equity continue their development into mainstream financial planning and mortgage propositions.
David Young who has been a non-executive director of Key Retirement Group for over four years will continue in the role through the next growth phase of the group.
Simon Thompson, chief executive, Key Retirement Group, said: “We are delighted that Steve has agreed to join Key Retirement Group as his customer focused ethos and track record fit perfectly with our plans for the future.
“His wealth of experience in the retirement sector and in successfully growing specialist businesses will be a major asset for Key as we deliver our expansion strategy.
“We are also delighted that David Young, with whom we have worked so closely over the past four years, is to continue in his Non-Executive role providing good continuity for the business.”
Groves said: “I know Key Retirement Group well having worked previously with them as a major business partner and I look forward to working with Simon and the team to build on the relationships and knowledge both they and I have from the past two decades in this sector to help serve existing and new customers.
“The acquisition by Partners Group means Key is poised to grow substantially and I look forward to working with the team and being part of the growth over the coming years.”
Young said: “Having worked with Key Retirement Group now for over four years, I’m extremely pleased to continue with the business and look forward to working with Steve, Simon and the Board through its next exciting phase.”
