SWANSEA: The city agency that added five staff in a year has just handed one of them a share of the business

A Swansea marketing and growth agency has expanded its leadership team after growing its staff by half in a year.

Ouma, which describes itself as a strategic growth partner, has made Rhys John a partner in the business, joining founders Ross Jones and Rachel Lyndon-Jones as a shareholder.

John joined the company in 2024 as Chief Operating Officer, and the firm credits him with building the operational side of the business as it has scaled.

At the same time, Tom Barker has joined as Chief Strategy Officer. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Barker’s CV takes in gambling giant Entain and the media agency MediaCom.

The company says its team has grown from 10 to 15 people in the past 12 months, and it is recruiting for two more roles at its Swansea base, a Marketing Manager and a Paid Media Executive.

Alongside the in-house team, the firm has launched what it calls the Ouma Expert Network, a pool of hundreds of specialist freelancers and consultants across the UK that it can draw on for client work.

The growth follows a run of client wins this year, the company says, including solar firm Heliotec, Azzurri Group, the parent company of the Zizzi and ASK Italian restaurant chains, Benchmark International and Bassetts Group.

Swansea Bay News has followed the firm’s growth since the pandemic. In 2020 its turnover went from £6,000 a month to £50,000 a month in six months, while its three-person team doubled, as it steered clients through Covid.

A year later it moved into Coastal Housing’s Urban Village on High Street, having started out in Llansamlet and run from its founders’ converted home offices through the lockdowns. Its client list then featured The Oldwalls Collection and Samaritans Cymru; today it includes the company behind two national restaurant chains.

Ross Jones, chief executive and co-founder, said of John’s promotion: “Rhys has been instrumental in building the operational backbone that’s allowed Ouma to scale the way we have this year. Making him a partner isn’t a symbolic gesture, it reflects the role he already plays in shaping where this business goes next.”

Barker said he was drawn by the chance to build a different kind of agency: “What attracted me to Ouma was the opportunity to build a new micro agency model, a senior strategic core, backed by a specialist network, rather than the bloated structures most agencies default to.

“There’s a real opportunity to build something that reflects how businesses actually want to work with a growth partner.”

Lyndon-Jones, chief marketing officer and co-founder, said: “Rhys and Tom joining the leadership team reflects where Ouma is now, not just where we’ve come from. Our clients need more than disconnected marketing activity; they need strategic partners who understand how growth connects across the whole business.”

The company works across brand and marketing strategy, digital infrastructure, performance marketing, CRM and AI automation.

It says it is building an international presence, with further announcements expected in the coming months.