Garden and lifestyle retailer, Sarah Raven, has appointed Jake Newbould as its Growth Marketing Director. Jake has 10 years of expertise in performance marketing and driving new customer acquisition for a variety of consumer-facing brands, making him the perfect candidate to grow Sarah Raven’s customer base and position the brand as a leading lifestyle retailer.
Newbould brings extensive expertise in new customer acquisition, lifecycle marketing and eCommerce development. He joins Sarah Raven from luxury homewares retailer, Piglet in Bed, where he spent four years in two roles as Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Marketing. Prior to this, Jake has held senior marketing positions at agencies and other retail businesses, including Made.com.
“I’m excited to have joined the team at Sarah Raven as I have always admired the brand’s autonomy and position as a pioneer within the gardening space. The brand has always been in tune with its customers, and as a novice gardener myself, I’m looking forward to working in an industry that enables me to tap into the mindset of customers who are new to the brand. In recent years, and especially since lockdown, we’ve seen broader audiences develop a keen interest in gardening at home. I see a real opportunity for Sarah Raven to appeal to a new market by leveraging our combination of tried and tested products with expert advice from Sarah herself”, said Newbould.
The new appointment comes at a time of anticipated growth for the brand, building on the recent acquisition of Taylors Clematis in late 2023. Newbould will spearhead initiatives to accelerate new customer acquisition using video-first storytelling and media buying in conjunction with enhancing the brand’s website for improved online customer conversion. This will be supported end-to-end from online transaction to product delivery and satisfaction, culminating in an elevated experience for customers to drive word of mouth referral.
Newbould has been recruited in light of the upcoming departure of Jim McDowell, the brand’s existing Chief Commercial Officer, who will be leaving later this year after nearly 14 years with the business.
Having joined in 2010, McDowell has been an essential part of Sarah Raven’s growth from a £1m business to turnover of over £20m, and more recently has been instrumental in leading the brands digital transformation.
McDowell added: “After 14 years at Sarah Raven, I’ll be leaving with many fond memories and will take pride in being part of taking a small, niche business to become a major player in the D2C horticultural sector. I’m also delighted to handover to Jake to lead the next phase of Sarah Raven’s growth. I’m sure that the business will continue to reach new heights and remain a force for change within the gardening space.”