The Red Rose Story

Hi, my name is Carole Aldred

and I am proud to say I’m a Lancashire Lass through-and-through!

I founded Red Rose Directories in May 2005 after working for many years in the corporate business world.

How Red Rose Directories Began

I was searching for a business idea and, after working up and down the country for many years, I decided I wanted to work on a local basis and help local businesses achieve the success they so much deserve.

My previous experience as a corporate business consultant highlighted to me just how much local businesses can struggle against these large organisations and I knew I had the expertise to help them – perhaps more than most.

Creating a comprehensive local business directory became the perfect solution to bridge this gap and provide smaller enterprises with the visibility they needed to compete effectively.

With this in mind, I decided to launch a local magazine for local businesses to advertise their products and services. I thought it best that the magazines were hand delivered to ensure maximum readership.

In May 2005 ‘The Bromley Cross Directory’ was born and, to be quite honest, at this stage I had no idea I would launch any further magazines! The initial response from this magazine was phenomenal!

It exceeded all my expectations and, after only a couple of months, the local advertising campaign had gained so much traction that businesses from neighbouring villages had heard about it and were asking if we would launch a similar magazine for their area.

To satisfy this demand, in July 2005 we launched a second magazine in Bradshaw & Harwood (The Bradshaw & Harwood Directory) and it wasn’t long before news of this one was out and we were on our way to a third!

Long story short…due to demand, we now have a total of 57 magazines all working extremely well for small and medium businesses in the areas.

The Directories have proven to be well received within the local community and the response from residents has been fantastic. Many of our Advertisers tell us they receive more response from our magazines than any other form of advertising!

We are a truly local, independent, family run business (my husband, Andrew and 2 sons also work in the business) and pride ourselves in providing and maintaining the ‘Personal Touch’ we have become recognised for.