The Sentinel

Top team now up and running

500 per cent growth in just eight months!

- By LAURA WATSON Business Editor

A FACEBOOK advertisin­g agency has experience­d a 500 per cent growth in just eight months - transformi­ng it from a one-man-band business into a global team of specialist­s.

Red Rag Marketing, based in Crewe, saw a five-fold increase in its turnover between May and December 2020 as more and more companies migrated online to sell their products.

The growth meant the company – which also offers Instagram ads marketing and Linkedin ads marketing – was also able to increase its workforce to a seven-strong team based across the globe from China to Canada. While initially the pandemic made many businesses put their marketing plans on hold, it soon became clear that companies had to press on – and Red Rag Marketing began to boom. Cheshire entreprene­ur Jamie Parker, who took the plunge to go full-time as a digital business owner 18 months ago – said: “Because of Covid-19 the whole world began buying online, and with 70 per cent of all online traffic being within systems or services owned by Facebook or Google, if you want to grab attention you have to be active on one of those. Once companies realised waiting for business to begin as before wasn’t an option, they soon wanted a social media selling strategy. “During lockdown one, I offered weekly webinars for smaller businesses who weren’t social media savvy, before going on to develop our Facebook Advertisin­g Mastery training program so business owners can utilise the platform fully.” Jamie’s hard work to raise the profile of Red Rag Marketing paid off, and in September 2020 he was approached by Worcester Bosch to develop a series of training packages for their dealer network throughout the UK. Jamie added: “That was a big deal for us and was a wonderful way to mark our first year of being in business.”

TRANSPORT and communicat­ions services provider Radius Payment Solutions has made its ninth acquisitio­n in just two years – after taking over technology provider The Frontier Group.

Radius, which is based in Crewe, has acquired North Shields-based Frontier as part of its plans for national expansion.

Bill Holmes, CEO of Radius Payment Solutions, said: “The Frontier Group is a thriving regional business. We are really looking forward to working with the team to continue this success and innovate further with new products and services over the years ahead.”

TELECOMMUN­ICATIONS business Complete Voice and Data Solutions has appointed its senior management.

The Newcastle business has appointed Ben Gregg as sales director, Paul Spence as operations director and Julie Ridgway as finance director.

Other significan­t hires include David Robinson as the head of unified communicat­ions and cloud, Lauren Fallows as head of service and Amy Mcculloch as head of mobile.

Mike Ridgway, who set-up the business in January 2020, said: “I was keen to bring on board the industry’s most well-respected and

The Frontier Group – which employs around 25 staff – is a business technology provider that specialise­s in mobile, connectivi­ty and IT solutions.

It also operates a specialist division supplying tailored telecommun­ications solutions into the care industry – Frontier Care Services – which provides mobile devices, tablets and connectivi­ty, IOT (Internet of Things) and remote working solutions for more than 16,000 users in the care industry.

A spokesman for The Frontier Group said: “Radius Payment Solutions is Europe’s leading independen­t service provider to the fleet and logistics market, and together with their telecoms vertical – Radius Connect Solutions – they will enable us to provide more value and resources. qualified comms profession­als, so recruitmen­t has been a careful and ongoing process. I’m incredibly pleased to say that we’ve now completed our first cohort within our initial year of opening and have establishe­d, in my opinion, the most qualified and skilled team of communicat­ions experts in the UK business communicat­ions sector.

“We’ll be continuing to search for quality experts in the industry with plans to take on a further three team members this year.

“We want to ensure we’re constantly providing the highest standard of service we can and that requires exceptiona­l voice and data profession­als.”

“Frontier Group was founded 11 years ago by our managing director, Andrew Rowley, and since then has grown exponentia­lly, thanks to our dedicated team and our loyal customers.

“Andrew will remain in his role within the business and will continue to oversee the management of our Newcastle office.

“On a day-to-day basis we will continue business as usual and with the support of Radius our team will continue to provide the outstandin­g customer service they are known for.”

The acquisitio­n represents the ninth by Radius in the telecommun­ications sector within the last two years and takes the company’s workforce to around 1,700.

In July, Radius acquired three separate businesses – Pure Telecom, Trinity Maxwell and Reliance Networks – which led to the formation of a new company, Radius Connect.

Months later, the company acquired Connect Total Communicat­ions, based in Northern Ireland, and went on to take a 50 per cent in electric vehicle charging points supplier Chargepoin­t Europe BV in November.

Ray Ferris, managing director of Radius Connect, said: “Frontier is a fast growing business who have carved out a niche offering within the care industry and complement our growth agenda perfectly.

“They have establishe­d strong partnershi­ps in growing sectors and we look forward to working with the existing team to continue the success story.”

 ??  ?? Andrew Rowley (managing director and founder of Frontier) and Bill Holmes (CEO of Radius Payment Solutions).
Andrew Rowley (managing director and founder of Frontier) and Bill Holmes (CEO of Radius Payment Solutions).
 ??  ?? From left: Lauren Fallows, Julie Ridgway, Mike Ridgway, Amy Mcculloch and Dave Robinson.
From left: Lauren Fallows, Julie Ridgway, Mike Ridgway, Amy Mcculloch and Dave Robinson.

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