About Us
Specialists in e-commerce, distribution and gifting for brands
LINKING PEOPLE WITH BRANDS
Home to Voucher Express, Vex Rewards, Cadbury Gifts Direct, Green & Black’s and your first destination for both UK and international business gifts.
Hemingways is a specialist e-commerce, sales and distribution company representing a wide range of major UK and international brands, promoting and selling their products to consumers and corporate markets.
The company is independently owned & managed and has traded since 1947. It’s heritage traces back to 1919.
A RICH HISTORY
Hemingways takes its name from the company’s founder John Hemingway who started his family business at the end of the first World War issuing Star Credit Checks – an early form of gift vouchers. During the 1960’s and 1970’s Hemingways operated furniture and department stores in Yorkshire and began marketing and distributing confectionery during the 1980’s, initially to sectors such as credit finance and dairy industries.
Originally based in Leeds, the company now operates from sites in Ripon, Wetherby and Amsterdam. The company employs over 170 people, and over 300 during peak trading. Hemingways is recognised as one of the fastest growing private companies in the North with turnover exceeding £245m.
SOLUTIONS FOR BRANDS AND RETAILERS
We remain an independent company operating in a number of niche markets, primarily retail gift vouchers, gift cards and branded confectionery. In all cases our operations involve working nationally with big brands and high volume sales.
Operations now include wholesale and consumer sales for Cadbury and Green & Black’s, white-label gift voucher and gift card solutions for over 35 major UK and international retailers; corporate fulfilment services via our dedicated handling operation, retail-based SaaS solutions from our VEX Elements suite, and consumer and corporate voucher sales via Voucher Express.
A TECHNOLOGY COMPANY
Alongside our established e-commerce activities, the company also operates a number of SaaS solutions with a particular focus on the Retail sector. Solutions include platforms used to manage Customer Service and Refunds processes; and bespoke Gift Card Management Platforms.
Hemingways own Bliss Systems Ltd, a specialist software development agency and Professional Services company. Bliss, a Microsoft Gold Partner, is based in Oxford and Leeds.
A FAST GROWING COMPANY
Hemingways Group Holdings Ltd ranks 21th in the list of fastest growing private companies in the Yorkshire region based on turnover figures from 2019 to 2021, appearing for a second year running in the Ward Hadaway’s Top50 listings for Yorkshire. The company also currently ranks 128th in Business Insider’s top 500 best-performing, biggest companies in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Read this Yorkshire Post feature from May 2023 with our MD Andrew Johnson explaining what this recognition means to the company.
AN ACCREDITED COMPANY
High standards sit at the heart of all our activities. We continually strive to be the very best we can be with regard to our processes concerning data management and security; and to continually deliver on the highest quality for our products and services, delivery and customer care.
Hemingways holds full ISO27001 accreditation; BRC Storage & Distribution accreditation as well as RSQS and Cyber Essential marks covering data security and management.
OUR CONSUMER AND CORPORATE SITES
We run a range of consumer and corporate sites covering our core businesses – gift cards, branded confectionery and rewards.
A RETURN TO OUR ROOTS
After more than 40 years outside of its founding location, 2023 saw a return to Hemingways’s roots with the establishment of a digital base in the centre of Leeds.
The iconic ‘Cuneiform’ building sits in the heart of the Leeds’s digital sector and benefits from Leeds’s standing as one of the country’s largest and most influential digital and technical cities.
Our Cuneiform building is depicted here by Leeds artist Clifford Stead
MEET SOME OF THE TEAM
People make business and we’ve got some of the best, most talented around.
Colm Phelan
Finance Director
Lydia Morrison
Sales & Marketing Director
Hayley Nicholson
Sales Account Executive
Carrie Wilson
Retail Support Manager
Andrew Johnson
Group Managing Director
Debbie Solan
Head of Retail Sales
Ellie Wheeler
Corporate Sales Manager
Mike Johnson
Group Chairman
Mike Ulman
Control Team Supervisor
Wayne Murray
Production Manager
Josi Collard
Voucher Operations Manager
Stephanie Ryder
HR Manager
MATT HINDLE
Finance Manager
Jane Spink
Purchasing Supervisor
Georgie Fieldman
Sales Support Supervisor
Marco Schubert
Technology and Technical Facilities Support
Paul Michael Groom
Senior Systems Support
Steve Blackburn
IT Support Specialist
Sarah Robinson
Sales Support Supervisor
Graham Burke
Head of ITCORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Hemingways is proud to support a range of initiatives both local to Yorkshire and further afield. We select our causes carefully, making sure that our budgets go to where they will most positive impact.
SIMON ON THE STREETS
Simon on the Streets is a homeless charity working in Leeds and Bradford.
Delivering services on an outreach basis directly on the streets – supporting individuals who are homeless and may not be engaging with other services. Simon on the Streets delivers its outreach work during the day but also in the evening and in the early hours of the morning when many of the most vulnerable are struggling. Find our more
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DOWN’S SYNDROME ASSOCIATION
My Perspective – International Photographic Competition
Voucher Express has been proud sponsor of the Stephen Thomas award for photography. This unique competition enables people who have Down’s Syndrome to show us how they see the world through the medium of photography. Find our more
This is the 2023 winner, Jonathan Cross from the USA – “I liked the early morning sunlight on the leaves. I took the picture at a butterfly farm in north Georgia in the United States. I went with my best friend, Michaella.”
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OTLEY RUFC
Otley RUFC – Club Sponsor for 20+ Years
Hemingways has been a proud sponsor of Otley RUFC for over two decades, providing support to this traditional rugby union club based north of Leeds in Yorkshire. Otley is a Northern 1 Division team playing in a highly competitive league. Find out more
ASHA NEIGHBOURHOOD PROJECT
Ongoing Support for the ASHA Project
The ASHA Neighbourhood Project opened its doors in April 1985 with the aim of improving the lives of all women and children in South Leeds.
ASHA aims to support and empower its users – providing a wider knowledge of rights, opportunities and services available and in doing so enable all women and their families to participate fully in the social, cultural and civic life of Leeds. Find out more