Is this Lancashire's most experienced promotional gifts team?
Directors Ann and Steve Ward have now been trading 36 years as years as BusinessGiftUK, son Ben is now entering his 10th year and Nicola Derbyshire now feels like one of the family starting her 19th year with this Lancashire firm.
Manging Director – Steve Ward
Steve grew up in Aughton, near Ormskirk in Lancashire and was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, Crosby. His first job was in Insurance in Liverpool, before moving into advertising with firstly local newspapers and then the Yellow Pages. He and wife Ann started Ad-Options in 1985 to sell both advertising in BT payphone kiosks and promotional gifts. The company started trading on the 1st June 1985 and their first son Adrian was born 2 days later! Steve used to play a lot of cricket for Northern CC in the Liverpool Competition and Leyland CC in the Northern League. He is now a keen golfer at Leyand Golf Club and anywhere else that he can get a game!
Director – Ann Ward
Ann was born in Slough, and moved to Liverpool aged 6. She met Steve at her first full time job at the Royal Insurance Company in 1976. She also moved on to the advertising industry, working for the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo. She and Steve gave up well paid jobs to start their own business in 1985. Ann worked part time while children Adrian and Ben were growing up and has been a Director of the business since 1999.
General manager – Ben Ward
Ben is Ann and Steve’s younger son and started working in the business by assembling key rings, for pocket money, as a schoolboy. This later developed into holiday jobs and gap year employment before leaving home to study Business at Liverpool University. After successful graduation Ben did 4 years, and gained 3 promotions, with the Halifax Bank before returning to the family firm. He lives with wife Faye and new baby Harriet and is now taking more responsibility for the day to day running of the company as his parents approach retirement. Ben is a keen cricketer and committee member at Mawdesley CC.
Sales Manager – Nicola Derbyshire
Nicola is in her 19th year with the company. She started as a part-time sales assistant gaining experience all types of promotional products and print. From around 2009 she became the expert in key rings sales, particularly the popular, UK manufactured, Ad Loop keyrings. She quickly became known as the Loop Queen and has helped to train and mentor several new staff and apprentices over the years. She has excellent rapport with many regular clients. She has two children and lives locally with partner Mark, cats Betsy and Fern and a rescue dog Jim.
BusinessGiftUK.com are accredited members of the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA) and they keenly adhere to the professional standards of that organisation. All members of the team have attended numerous industry training courses, seminars and trade shows and often pool their knowledge to come up with promotional ideas for their clients. They have a database of 120,000 branded products and specialise in UK manufactured and eco-friendly business gifts, including items made right here in Lancashire.
So, if you want to be sure you are getting some of the most knowledgeable advice in the industry, get in touch with this experienced team.
They also know most of the best value prices too!
Stephen Ward is Managing Director of Ad-Options Ltd and is past Chairman of the Central Lancashire Business Club
The main website is https://BusinessGiftUK.com
Tel: 01772 429111
Email: Steve@businessgiftuk.com
