- Ryman
Ryman is a British
stationery retail er.It was founded in 1893 by Henry J Ryman who opened the first store on
Great Portland Street ,London and was successfully owned and managed by the Ryman family until the 1970s. After it was sold it had a chequered history for a couple of decades, changing hands several times and experiencing some periods of poor performance.It is now owned by
Theo Paphitis who is one of the Dragons on BBC'sDragons' Den . He acquired Ryman in 1995 and he has since turned it into successful and profitableretail businesses and now heads up a 350 store chain and a group turnover approaching £250m.Developments since acquisition by Paphitis have included the introduction a 'Ryman Direct'
mail order catalogue in 1996, a website in 1998, promotional campaigns in the press and football sponsorship of the Premier Division, Division One North and Division One South out of theIsthmian League . The Premier division is two tiers down from theConference National . In2001 the company acquired the Partners chain and in 2007 purchased 61 stores fromThe Stationary Box , all stores were consequently rebranded "Ryman" in October 2008 [http://www.ryman.co.uk/aboutus.asp] .External links
* [http://www.ryman.co.uk/ Official site]
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