NEWS: Freemans loses marketing chief

Freemans’ marketing director, Rosemary Astles, is leaving the company at

the end of the year to go travelling.

Astles said her departure and the speculation that the Sears catalogue

business is up for sale were ‘pure coincidence’.

She said that she was leaving partly because the opportunity had arisen

for her and her partner to go travelling, and partly because she would

achieved all she could in the marketing department at Freemans.

Astles had been at Freemans for about two years and was the first

marketing director at the business for a number of years. ‘I was

recruited to put marketing firmly on Freemans’ map, which I have done,’

she said.

Before her stint there, Astles was marketing director of Thomson Tour

Operations.

The mail-order business is reportedly up for sale and Sears is hoping to

get up to pounds 400m for it. Sears’ chief executive, Liam Strong, is

believed to be considering either selling it off or buying another mail-

order company to combine with it. He wants Freemans to grow from its

number three position in the market.

No announcement has yet been made regarding a replacement for Astles.

This article was first published on Marketing