Norwich Union marketer lands top Freemans job

Mail-order giant Freemans has appointed Norwich Union Direct marketing chief Andrew Jackson to its board as marketing director.

Jackson joins Freemans on November 16, and replaces David Isaacs, who is understood to have been ousted after a boardroom row in November last year.

He will report to chief executive John Pearmund and take responsibility for strategic planning, advertising, database marketing and financial services.

Freemans’ previous head of marketing, Michael Cutbill, left in August to join Saga Services, the financial services group.

Freemans’ ads are created in-house, with media bought through Mansfield Lang Direct Media. A spokeswoman says these relationships “will remain as they are”.

Jackson’s appointment comes two months after Freemans was sold by Sears to Otto Versand – the world’s largest mail-order company. The German company Versand, which also owns Grattans in the UK, paid &£150m.

Sears originally agreed to sell Freemans to Littlewoods two years ago for &£375m, but the deal was blocked by the Government. The Versand sale was agreed after Sears was taken over by the entrepreneur Philip Green, ending considerable uncertainty about Freemans’ future.

Jackson spent four years as marketing director at Norwich Union Direct, and will not be directly replaced. Bruce Forbes, IT director at Norwich Union’s broker division, becomes sales and marketing director for the direct group.

Before Norwich Union, Jackson was group marketing director at Frizzell Financial Services.