Lesmar looks back on more than 60 successful years of history ? and yet over the past five years they have reinvented their company. Since Andy Ducksbury and Mike Oxley have been running Lesmar, they have completely repositioned the traditional and well-established British promotional products distributor. Joining the international distributor association, IPPAG, at the beginning of this year was the icing on the cake of the realignment.

The name Oxley is well-known among the British promotional products branch: Marion Oxley was not only responsible for the destiny of Lesmar and expanding the company?s portfolio from one product to a full-range of items, but she was also President of the branch association, Promota. The promotional products business is more or less a family matter as far as the Oxleys are concerned: Marion Oxley?s father laid the foundation for Lesmar in 1947. His father in turn invented the famous Magic Slate for children ? drawing boards that can be drawn on and wiped clean again with one swoop of the bar positioned between the layers of the writing surface. The family held the patent for the Magic Slate for 21 years and had the exclusive sale rights for the product during this time ? and exported it through Lesmar. When the patent expired after 21 years the company initially stagnated? until the beginning of the 1980s when Marion Oxley took over the management. She gradually expanded Lesmar?s product range until it became a full-range stockist. She increased the annual turnover up to 2 mil. British pounds.