Automotive industry
Tim Alcock is the Marketing Director for the UK’s leading car leasing website – leasecar.uk. The fast-growing Stoke-on-Trent based business has expanded on average 20% every year for the past six years, during which Tim has been employed directly or indirectly by parent company Central Contracts.
“I’ve been head of online marketing since January 2016 but the company has been a client or I’ve worked internally for over six years now,” Tim said. “During my career, I’ve developed a niche as an automotive sector marketeer, with contacts in some of the leading automotive businesses in the UK. I couldn’t say I’d be here if it wasn’t for the knowledge and skills I gained from my degree at Staffordshire University.”
IT to marketing
Tim is originally from Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, and attended Cauldon College, now called Stoke-on-Trent College, where he took an interest in IT. He chose to pursue the subject at degree level at Staffordshire University, at a time when the internet was becoming central to business and social media giant Facebook had recently been founded.
“IT was the future,” Tim said. “The reason I chose to pursue IT was timing more than anything. The internet was just getting going as a business platform so I chose to study it at college and university. I chose Staffs due to the reputation of the Applied Information Technology course. It’s not only recognised as one of the best in the area but across the country.
“The course and the lecturers, all ex-industry, were great. What was good at Staffs: even though we were out of our depth from day-one in terms of not knowing how to programme, the lecturers were teaching us from a standing start about how to programme in the industry. Going from being clueless to being able to programme was really enjoyable. Programming is a skill for life these days and the guys that taught us knew how it was being used in the real world.”
Upon graduating in 2009, Tim got a job as a junior developer at a local marketing agency, where he spent three years and advanced to lead developer. The agency’s management team was then headhunted by Central Contracts, where he followed, before moving to Manchester to work for agency Online Ventures Group as technical director for three years. During this time, he developed his skills as a marketer and gained extensive contacts in the automotive industry.
Leasecar.uk
“After three years in Manchester, I moved back to Central Contracts and Stoke-on-Trent. I still do some programming as marketing is very analytical, with vast amounts of data that needs processing, as well as manage a team of both internal staff and out-sourced agency work.
“The business has been growing by 20% a year for the last six years and is still going strong. We’re a national company, supplying a huge range of car leasing and contract hire options for businesses and private customers. Car leasing is an increasingly popular choice for individuals looking for personal contract hire agreements and we pride ourselves on finding our customers the right vehicle at the right price. It’s a great job and I thoroughly enjoy it.”
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