Schoolblazer: Independent School Uniform and Sportswear

CHAIRMAN and DIRECTORS

Tim James

Chairman

Tim has a retail background having held major buying and marketing roles before helping to found Schoolblazer. As well as being Chairman of Schoolblazer, he is on the board of both our parent company, Global Uniform Solutions and our investor, Hancock and Gore, where he is also the largest shareholder. Tim continues to actively develop and support Schoolblazer and will often be seen at our Head Office in Oundle.

Louise Crofts

Managing Director

Louise is the rock on which the business is founded and keeps a firm handle on the tiller to make sure we’re on the right course and avoiding icebergs! As Managing Director, Louise has responsibility for all aspects of day-to-day management, including buying, finance and operations. If Louise says it can’t be done, you can be sure that every avenue has been explored!

Jane Dexter

Finance Director

Jane is our Finance Director. She is a fully qualified ACMA and is very clever. She is the navigator that prevents the Schoolblazer ship hitting the rocks. Jane is responsible for producing our management accounts and we are grateful for her diligence in delivering them accurately and on time. Jane works with Tim to ensure our bank’s continued support, delivering our A* credit rating.

Ray Beaumont

Technology Director

Technology Director, Ray Beaumont looks after all our IT needs at head office, in our warehouse and on the web. He also leads the design, development and support of our bespoke e-commerce and back-office systems. His background includes a diverse range of businesses, most recently as CTO at Hemscott PLC.

Clare Burrows

Commercial Director

Clare has worked at Schoolblazer for over 10 years, spending most of her time with Robin. She deserves a medal, but instead we promoted her to Commercial Director with a seat on the board. Clare oversees our schools’ management and business development teams, and makes sure that all our school customers can’t stop talking about how fabulous we are! If there is a problem, Clare is all over it making sure that it’s resolved instantly.

Sean Ryan

Operations Director

Sean is the legend that is our Operations Director. Sean joined the business as a packer and has risen through the ranks to run our whole Schoolblazer Logistics operation with a seat on the board. This is no mean feat. He has responsibility for distributing nearly half a million items over the summer period and sewing on 5½ miles of name tapes per day! Sean has a major focus on operational sustainability and efficiency.

Steve Tuck

Buying and Merchandising Director

Steve heads up our growing Buying and Merchandising Team and oversees all sportswear and uniform purchasing, making regular trips to our factories in Indonesia and Sri Lanka to monitor production and to source new products. A board member, Steve also ensures that our suppliers meet our strict ethical and environmental standards. Steve is a keen oarsman, regularly testing our Limitless sportswear products himself.

charlotte fry

Business Development Director

Charlotte joined Schoolblazer in 2022 bringing a wealth of experience in designing high street fashion. She has since become essential to the future of our business development, continuing to focus on our product ranges and overall growth.

Our teams

Amanda Andrews

Product Manager

Amanda works on our new school implementations, ensuring every product detail is signed off by our customers and making sure through her diligence there are no c*ck ups! She also builds our new school websites, ensuring they are delivered to you on time and to specification. She brightens our day with her smile and constant inappropriate innuendos.

Laura Sharrock-Long

Account Manager

Laura is an experienced Account Manager who works alongside Clare, making sure that all of our school customers are happy, managing our critical paths and ensuring we deliver to our new schools on time and to specification.

Tegan barr

Product Manager

Tegan has joined us as Product Manager to support the team with our new schools. Tegan has previous experience of face painting on her CV which will be a great addition to the famous Schoolblazer BBQ!

emily wilson

Sales Administrator - Sportswear

Emily is our new Sales Administrator for Sportswear and is responsible for the timely delivery of our Limitless staff wear and teamwear orders. Emily ensures orders are processed on time for our customers and will move mountains to make sure that schools and teams have everything they need. In her spare time, Emily has an allotment where she indulges her love of gardening.

CHARLOTTE PENNEY

Account Manager

Charlotte joined Schoolblazer as an Account Manager, to help the team manage our growing number of schools. With more than ten years’ experience working in account management, her friendly demeanour and professionalism are a perfect fit for the task in hand.

chris roberts

Limitless Business Development Manager

Chris joined our team in 2022 to further develop the Limitless side of the business. His background as an Assistant Director of Sport and coach gives him a unique insight into the challenges schools face to ensure all students enjoy and participate in sport and school life. With his sporting heritage and management experience, Chris will advance Limitless sportswear.

Tom Bryant

National Teamwear Manager

Tom joined us with tonnes of sporting experience gained working as Regional Sales Manager at Pentland Brands Ltd. (Mitre and Canterbury), as well as at Samurai Sportswear. A very skilled sportsman himself, he will be responsible with Chris for making sure the only thing our Directors of Sport talk about is Limitless!

kate haywood

Account Manager and Limitless Ambassador

Kate is a decorated double Olympian having represented GB at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Her experience as an elite female athlete as well as being an athlete mentor will be invaluable to our Limitless brand. Her main focus will be working with our schools to ensure students are encouraged to be active. We’re excited to have Kate join the team!

BIANCA MANGANIELLO

Designer

Bianca is our Designer, working alongside Sam to create our beautiful uniform and sportswear designs. A graduate from Nottingham Trent in Woven Design, Bianca also enjoys sports and rowing, as well as weaving in her spare time, of course!

SAM LEWIS

Junior Designer

Sam is a Graphic Design graduate with a host of experience in different fields. He is helping our School team to present uniform and sportswear with beautiful computer-aided designs and collections.

Louise Allard

Marketing Manager

Louise speaks several languages, including French, German and Marketing! Her expertise means the brands of Schoolblazer and Limitless are always on message and looking their best. She also has insight into the sporting world as an ex-hockey player – perfect for relating to the teenagers who wear our kit.

meaka wheatley

Marketing Executive

Meaka joined the Marketing team from our design team, after finding an affinity with graphic design and Marketing tasks at Schoolblazer. She will be supporting our Marketing Manager and helping to ensure that Schoolblazer and Limitless are top of mind for schools.

Alison Thorpe

Customer Care Director

Alison heads up our Customer Care Team and if you find that your call has been referred to our Head Office you will invariably hear from Alison. Her calm and sunny demeanour will smooth any crisis! You can be sure she will move heaven and earth to help resolve your query.

Leigh Smith

Customer Care Executive

Leigh joined our Customer Services team from the medical research industry. His cheery personality is perfect for our customer-facing team and he is always on hand to help parents with questions.

Charlotte Clay

Senior Buyer

Charlotte is responsible for all of our uniform and sportswear product development. She often travels to Indonesia to make sure our garments are being made to the highest standards and our manufacturers are meeting their obligations on ethical trading. She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Schoolblazer garments after more than 10 years of working with us.

Darren Taft

Senior Merchandiser

Darren joined Schoolblazer to boost our Merchandising team. That’s a massive task, we have over 40,000 products and Darren has to make sure they are all in stock, all of the time, without having too much. It’s the definition of a thankless task, but he will be up for it, having spent most of his working life working for a big Marks and Spencer supplier, trying to predict their whittling demand (another thankless task!).

Niamh Harrington

Buyer

Niamh came to help us out on Customer Services over the summer of 2018 and liked it so much that she begged to come back for her year’s placement from Northumbria University. After graduating with a first, she returned to us as an Assistant Buyer and her first major responsibility was helping to organise the famous Schoolblazer Christmas party! Niamh sources our sportswear and has an excellent foundation from working through each department over her placement year.

Madison Smith

Buyer

Madison joined Schoolblazer in 2019 as an intern from De Montfort University. We believe in getting our interns immersed in every aspect of our business. There is no tea making. She loved it so much she decided that she wanted to come back and after achieving a magnificent first in Fashion Buying and Marketing she is now bringing youth to our buying team.

Debbie Smith

Import/Export Coordinator

Debbie is a vital part of the Buying team. She is responsible for shipping so works very hard to ensure our product does not get stuck in customs or held up by Brexit style red tape. She’s a mother of two and a little older than the others so has to stop listening when the younger members of the office are discussing their weekend antics.

Daniel Legon

Merchandiser

Daniel joined us as a Merchandiser, working alongside Darren and Julie. Previously he worked with Go Outdoors, Asics and Dunelm in merchandising so he must be used to being blamed for not having enough or having too much stock! Luckily for Daniel, there’s no blame culture at Schoolblazer – we just learn and try to find a better way next time. Daniel, Darren and Lara are part-based in our Mansfield office/warehouse, so they can be in touch with Operations Director, Sean.

Rachael Collins

Garment Technologist

Rachael is a graduate of De Montfort University and pursued a career in garment technology working for several second division retailers including Tesco, Next and Boden before seeing the light and joining premiership Schoolblazer. Rachael can often be seen working with our Alvanons and knows them on a first-name basis!

Julie Catling

Merchandiser

Julie is responsible for all of uniform purchasing. That is a very complicated task as there are so many variations but through her great tenacity she gets it right! Julie makes sure that we have the right levels of stock in our warehouse to fulfil all of our orders and spends her time chasing our suppliers to ensure that our stock arrives in good time. Outside of work she loves bellringing and the WI. No! Don’t judge her; she’s lovely!

Stephen Lewins

Data Analyst

Stephen is responsible for the merchandising of our uniform and sportswear and uses clever forecasting tools to help the buying team to purchase the appropriate levels of stock for each school. Stephen has a mathematics degree and talks in a language that only Tim really understands.

Lara Bates

Assistant Buyer

Lara originally joined us as a Merchandising Assistant, based in our warehouse – and we soon redirected her skills to Fabric Coordinator, getting the best of both worlds between Buying and Merchandising. Now promoted to Assistant Buyer, she will be predominantly working on uniform and fabric development. She splits her days between the warehouse and our Head Office, so we all benefit from her cheery disposition!

ELLIE GABBUTT

Assistant Buyer

Ellie joined the Buying team to support our sportswear Buyer; she will be working on product development as well as UK sourcing and supplier relationship management. A very recent graduate of the London College of Fashion, Ellie has chosen to jump straight into the Limitless team and we’re sure she’ll feel right at home.

Robbie Smart

Merchandising Administrator

Robbie Smart left the company in January 2020. At his exit interview he said “Schoolblazer was the best company he had ever worked for”. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, his plans did not work out so we are delighted to welcome Robbie back as Merchandising Administrator. Robbie, as we expected was straight back in the saddle helping the team chasing down deliveries to our warehouse.

Natalie Satchwell

Assistant Merchandiser

Natalie started working for Schoolblazer in our Mansfield warehouse, but we’ve stolen her to fulfil a merchandising role! She also holds a level two certificate in accounting – perfect prep for all those spreadsheets.

madeleine foex

Buying Intern

Madeleine comes to us from a Contour Fashion course at De Montfort University and is one of three interns at Schoolblazer this year. In her spare time, she designs and decorates artistic swimming costumes. One of her key focuses is sustainability, so Schoolblazer is the perfect place for her placement year.

SASHA COGGINS

Garment Technology Intern

Sasha is studying Fashion Textiles Design at De Montfort University and is one of three interns on placement with us in 2024/2025. Super creative, Sasha is a fan of visiting art museums and the V&A for inspiration, so we’re looking forward to seeing her contributions at Schoolblazer!

lottie parkinson

Buying Intern

Lottie is one of three interns we have welcomed to Schoolblazer in 2024/2025 and comes to us from a Fashion Marketing course at Manchester Met. A dedicated follower of fashion trends in the garment industry, we look forward to seeing what Lottie will accomplish during her time with us.

Julie Shields

Finance Assistant

Julie looks after the Schoolblazer financial administration and is responsible for paying, not making excuses to, our fantastic suppliers. She also has the most important job in the office – paying the team’s wages and their expenses. You’ll often see Julie telling Robin off for incorrect expense claims; she says he’s worse than politicians! Julie is always the life and soul of the Schoolblazer Christmas party.

Kim Dodd

Management Accountant

Kim has worked her way up from a secretarial role in her first job to being a fully qualified accountant to MAAT level. You’ve got to admire anyone who has achieved that whilst having to earn a living. There’s no doubt her enthusiastic outlook will shake up our accounts, helping Jane to navigate the company away from any icebergs.

George edwards

Finance Assistant

George works for us as a Finance Assistant, helping Jane, Julie and Kim to navigate the accounting waters at Schoolblazer. He is studying for his full MAAT membership and loves a good spreadsheet. George brought in doughnuts on his first day, so he could not be more popular!

MARK NALLY

Agile Delivery Manager

Mark became our new Agile Delivery Manager at the start of 2022, and has taken charge of our brilliant development team, ensuring it is running efficiently. He is extremely active in his spare time, with his hobbies including snowboarding, E-Skating, wakeboarding, water skiing and bodyboarding.

HAYDEN MELVILLE

Senior Analyst Programmer

Hayden works in our IT Department on something called software. His CV has words like Widget, Android and something called GitHub. It’s a total mystery to us all, but one thing we do know is we wouldn’t be without his cheerful smile and super helpful demeanour.

JON HUDSON

Infrastructure Manager

Jon is the IT wiz of the office. He defected from our excellent IT support company, Cambridge Networks, to join the Schoolblazer team. Whenever anything goes wrong IT-wise, Jon is your man. Like when Robin can’t log on to Facebook or other such crises! Jon attended the now famous Schoolblazer summer barbeque. We think this event alone persuaded him to jump ship.

MELVIN BURTON

QA Tester

Melvin made his mark at “Alert me”, more commonly known as Hive. This clever technology remotely controls all aspects of your home and was bought by British Gas for a tidy sum. Unfortunately Melvin was not a shareholder so has had the foresight to join another clever company, Schoolblazer. In his role he will test the amazing gizmos our IT development team come up with and send it back if it doesn’t work. There is no “Hive” for the IT developers!

RENEE MYRIE

QA Analyst

Renee works with Melvin to QC the work that our developers produce so that we don’t unleash bugs on our customers. Renee is a qualified microbiologist, so bugs are her specialty.

JIM MCKERCHAR

Analyst Programmer

Jim’s CV states that his key skills include Ruby, Ruby On Rails and Sinatra – We are yet to hear is rendition of “My Way” but look forward to ol’ blue eyes stealing the show at the Christmas party! In his spare time Jim produces music and plays the guitar (unsurprisingly).

Leonard Percival

Senior Analyst Programmer

Lenny has joined us as a Senior Analyst/Programmer, working alongside our Director of IT. His CV is also intimidatingly full of acronyms that none outside of the dark side of coding would understand, but also reveals a love of blacksmithing, solo kayaking for charity and being multilingual – perfect for the Schoolblazer team!

BEN WRIGHT

Analyst Programmer

Ben is our resident back-end guru and the Sultan of Sarcasm! Armed with a binary brain and a black belt in grumpiness, Ben is our go-to guy for all things code-related. Don't let his cantankerous exterior fool you though - Ben's got a heart of gold and a helpful demeanour that's always ready to assist his colleagues. His superpowers include fixing bugs with a mere flick of his keyboard and transforming complex algorithms into elegant code like a boss.

robert howden

Analyst Programmer

Robert is an Analyst Programmer who joined the team in 2024. A graduate in history, he then became Head of IT at a school, before moving into coding. We expect a lot of good facts are being shared in the IT Zoom these days! With another assortment of incomprehensible acronyms on his CV, we are positive he’ll be a great fit within our already brilliant IT team.

Leanne Ryan

Stock Control Manager

As the name suggests, Leanne is Sean’s sister. Leanne is the Schoolblazer font of all knowledge! She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of our product range and takes responsibility for all goods in and processes all garments arriving at the warehouse. Leanne ensures these pass our rigorous QC examinations prior to release to the pick face.

Quality, Service and Innovation, guaranteed

CULTURE AND VALUES

CULTURE AND VALUES

CHAIRMAN and DIRECTORS

Our teams