118 trades appoints high profile non executive director to the board

Daniel Corby, founder and CEO of 118 Group, which includes directory business 118 trades has appointed Hugh Craen to the board as the company prepares for the most exciting phase of expansion yet

[ClickPress, Tue Aug 22 2006] Fast growing Chelmsford based 118 Group has made its second key appointment to the board this year, and is delighted to announce that Hugh Craen will be joining the board as Non Executive Director from September 2006.

The appointment of Hugh Craen follows the appointment of Richard Allan, as Chairman, formerly CEO of Car Dealer group, Perry Group plc.

Hugh Craen has previously worked with established names including, Singer and Friedlander running their Factoring division and in 2000 set up and floated Potential Finance Group plc on AIM.

Potential Finance Group plc ran a very successful Factoring and Asset Finance arm and Hugh left the business in 2005 following the sale of part of the business.

Speaking about the announcement, Daniel Corby, founder and CEO of 118 Group said “We are delighted that Hugh Craen has chosen to work with the group and will bring significant skills and talent to the board. It is our intention to float 118 Group on AIM at some stage in the next 18 months and the appointment of Hugh to the board will no doubt help this exercise and help to underpin the foundations of the group as it prepares for some major expansion in 2006 and beyond”

Notes to editors

118 Group was formed in 2005 and incorporates various trading divisions including 118trades - the directory service, 118telecoms - a reseller of memorable numbers, 118gethitched - a wedding portal and Fido Local - a new advertising led publication business. 118 Group completed the acquisition of Car Auto in June 2006 and plans to challenge existing titles including Car Data, Exchange and Mart and Auto Trader from late 2006 with a new web based service to match buyers with sellers in the used car business. 118 Group is based in Chelmsford, with offices in Harlow and a call centre in Salt Lake City, Calcutta, India. The business is preparing to open a new state of the art call centre in Chelmer Village, Chelmsford and create around 350 jobs from September 2006.

www.the118group.com
www.118trades.com
www.118telecoms.com
www.118gethitched.com
www.carauto.co.uk

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