LDM UK eyes expansion and pushes charitable envelope

The company, founded by business partners Rob Henry and Sean Thomas in 2014 in a windowless, one-desk office has since grown to occupy a 650sqm facility north of Manchester. The pair now employ 30 staff across divisions including sales, account management, warehouse and logistics as well as overseeing its network of print partners and distributors.

Specialising in door drop marketing, the business, which managing director Henry described as an alternative to Royal Mail amongst others, does not operate any of its own printing kit but acts as a print manager and partners with print firms whose work is collated at LDM’s Manchester HQ and sorted for distribution.

“We don’t kid ourselves about who we are, we’re not trying to be a Paragon or Whistl for example,” said Henry. “But we’re in a strong position now and we want to grow substantially over the next few years.”

The circa-£3m turnover firm, he explained, has recently employed a business development director who came from YM Group and is beginning a recruitment drive across the organisation as it aims to push turnover to £10m over the next three years.

Henry said: “The market is really quite positive right now and I think the fact that lots of people are hybrid or home working means you have people in houses so these tangible items have more appeal and more impact than perhaps they have before. It means door drop marketing is really a great avenue for marketing at the moment.”

Aside from its growth aspirations, the company continues to hold charitable work as a core value. Giving back is personal, Henry explained. “I wasn’t born with much – I’m not from an affluent background at all. So, helping those in need is really important to me.

“When we started, the aim was to support locally and as we’ve grown we have stuck with our roots and kept that ethos but also want to be able to expand on our giving as well.”

He said LDM tries to get involved in as much charitable work as it can, with one of its latest efforts involving the print and delivery of 100,000 leaflets to 100,000 homes for a Bolton children’s charity.

The pandemic highlighted to Henry that the company could do more, he said, so it delivered food and necessities to those shielding during lockdowns and it has continued to look for opportunities to help or donate, offering free leaflets distributions, Christmas gift donations, fundraising for the homeless and recently donating funds to a Ukrainian appeal for every campaign that was booked with the company during April and May.

Co-founder and LDM director, Sean Thomas, appealed to other businesses in the print and marketing sectors to join forces.

“We’re looking ahead now at what we can do to help those affected by the cost-of-living increase, we’re hearing about and seeing poverty increasing, families struggling to cope.

“We’re not the biggest business in the world but we want to help, and we need to help. Things are set to get more difficult as prices continue to rise; those who can help, should.

“We’d love to partner with any other businesses in the sector who want to work with us to help on our mission to give back, to together make a difference.”

Henry said sustainability was also a key issue for the already carbon neutral business. Last year LDM committed to planting 250 trees with Carbon Neutral Britain for every one million leaflets it distributes. To date it has planted 6,000 trees, he stated.