Welcome to Leader Online

What do the following have in common? A 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. Apart from sounding exhausting, all three accumulate to making an Ironman Triathlon, one of the toughest physical challenges someone can put themselves through. All this needs to be completed in less than 16 hours and will be attempted by the Managing Director of Leader Online Ltd, Mark Leader, on the 25th July 2010. Mark is part of a four strong Team Iron, who will compete in the Ironman Triathlon in Switzerland. This tough challenge is being undertaken in aid of four charities chosen by each member of the team with the aim of raising a total of £20,000 to be split between the charities. Mark Leader (Leader Online Ltd), Dean Benson (Visualsoft), George Parker-Fuller & Nik Tunley (Endeavour Partnership) are all taking part to raise funds for their respective charity. Mark would like to raise money for the Children's Diabetes Fund at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. His first encounter with this condition was through a family friend whose 4 year old son Zenon has had diabetes from birth. The money raised will go towards purchasing some distraction equipment to use when children have painful procedures done. It is a very neat bit of kit, which projects images that can be seen in 3D when special glasses are worn!! Mark said: “I think this is going to be the toughest challenge I will have ever done. So if you can sponsor me I would really appreciate it, as this is going to help with the motivation, and I am going to need lots!!!!” If you would like to find out more information about the team and the event, please navigation the Team Iron website and the IronMan website. More information about the Children's Diabetes Fund can be found on the South Tees Hospitals General Charitable Fund JustGiving page. If you would like to sponsor Mark please navigate to his JustGiving page.

Intrepid cyclists and local businessmen have gone the extra mile to raise £1,500 to help children and young people with diabetes.The trio completed the 150-mile coast-to-coast cycle ride from Whitehaven on the Cumbrian coast to Sunderland on the North Sea coast in one day, starting at 6am and reaching the finish at 11.20pm.To mark their significant achievement the companies they work for - Leader on Line, Hartlepool, Tees Valley solicitors TBI, and Visualsoft Web Solutions at Stockton - donated £500 each to help children cared for at James Cook Hospital.The cyclists decided to help after talking to Melanie Cohen Smith at a party and hearing about her son Zenun, who has diabetes. Melanie said she was delighted they had helped the hospital team and came along with Zenun to the cheque presentation to thank them.Dr Ginny Birrell, consultant paediatrician said: “We would like to congratulate the bikers on their successful bike ride and are very grateful to their companies for the donation to our children’s diabetes trust fund.“We are running a special diabetes education day in November including workshops for grandparents, general practitioners, teachers and head teachers, parents and children to help with education and improving awareness of diabetes and we will put the money towards this.”

Leader Online's new website Leader Stairs has offically launched, bringing yet another dimension to the Leader Online retail proposition. The website sells a wide range of stair parts in a number of finishes. Customers can choose  from Ash, Beech, Hemlock, Oak, Red Hardwood and Contemporary ranges of stair parts. Selling a full range of spindles, newels, newel caps, handrails and baserails, www.leaderstairs.co.uk offers excellent choice for any feature staircase in your home. Leader Stairs now completes the current Leader Online family, joining Leader Doors, Leader Floors and Leader Garden Furniture.

Leader Floors have been operating online for some time, but recent sales figures have shown a significant increase in customers choosing to shop online. ‘Internet sales have hit an all time high in the UK as price conscious shoppers are shunning the high street in lieu of bargain hunting online’, said John-Paul Rowe, Sales Manager for Leader Online. ‘ Through the first three months of this year, web sales passed the £13bn mark, which is a 50% increase over the same period last year, so it’s no surprise that Leader Floors offering such huge savings have enjoyed record sales.

After only a couple of days of online trading, Leader Doors made a huge impact with online shoppers. Research has shown that most shoppers have made purchases from Leader Doors because of price and quality. ‘The first few days showed how well we’d done our home work’, said Mark Leader, Managing Director of Leader Online. ‘We knew that the market was wide open for a company such as ourselves, with along tradion in the timber trade, to offer excellent products at exceptional value for money. It’s a simple mission policy, but one that never goes out of date, ‘offer value for money’ and people will always come back’.

If you’re a forward thinking, dynamic individual who can work well on your own or as part of a team, then we’d like to hear from you! In return, we can offer a rewarding career in both e-commerce and high street retailing with an attractive numeration package and benefits.

Since the launch of our very first eCommerce site www.leaderfloors.co.uk, the Leader Group are soon to have four sites with the launch of www.leaderstairs.co.uk; which will compliment www.leadergardenfurniture.co.uk and www.leaderdoors.co.uk, both of which are already live and are producing impressive results on ROI. Keith Palmer of The Creative Type Advertising said: 'The role these websites play in offering choice, value for money and delivery, (and all at your fingers tips), mean customers no longer need to suffer the frustrations of high street shopping.' 'In the past three months, the volume of retails sales has risen 2.0 per cent. This is the largest increase since July 2006 and shows precisely where customer are choosing to spend their money’. Figure taken from the Office for National Statistics 24 April 2008.

Since the launch of our exciting new online garden furniture store, we’ve seen sales reaching new records as shoppers track down the item they are looking for, cheaper and with more convenience. ‘Over half of our sales are now coming from online’, said John-Paul Rowe, Sales Manger at Leader Online. ‘We expected an increase in sales, but our prices and products are proving so popular that we are now having to restructure our warehouse operations to accommodate more stock to meet our next-day delivery policy’.