A KEIGHLEY company has been appointed to oversee the marketing strategy for a historic financial institution.

Respond Marketing will carry out online advertising and website maintenance, social media activity and design and print services for friendly society Healthy Investment.

The society is one of the UK’s oldest mutually-owned providers of investment and savings plans.

Founded in Salford in 1835 and now based at Bury, its roots are in the 19th-century temperance movement.

Throughout its history the society has avoided investing in companies that are directly involved in the alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography or arms industries.

Today it provides ISAs, investment bonds, child trust funds and savings plans to more than 110,000 members across the country.

Howard Martin, who has been in marketing for four decades and founded Respond Marketing more than 15 years ago, said: “Healthy Investment has an incredible history and, I believe, a great future ahead of it.

“These are turbulent times for many investors, which makes Healthy Investment’s message all the stronger.

“I look forward to working with them to raise their profile over the months ahead.”

The society invests members’ money in an ethical with-profits fund that holds back a proportion of gains in years of strong investment performance, using them to minimise volatility during years of weaker markets.

Peter Green, chief executive of Healthy Investment, said: “Friendly societies like ours have been going about their work quietly for decades, but I believe we offer something different for which there is a real demand.

“Ethically-invested, prudently-managed with-profits funds can potentially provide inflation-beating returns while also offering capital guarantees and, in these uncertain times, we are offering a combination of security and potential capital growth that I think a lot of people will find attractive.”

Other marketing providers recently engaged by Healthy Investment include Alpha Public Relations, a financial and professional services specialist, which is tasked with raising the friendly society’s profile in the media. It was founded in 2017 by Stuart Anderson. And Lisa Weaver, of The PPC Team, has been appointed to look after Healthy Investment’s online pay-per-click advertising.