About Us

Mark Barnes (Managing Director) moved to Mid Wales in 1993 from Hastings, East Sussex.
Married with two children and living in Newtown; he worked in Service Management in various car dealerships across the area, tending to the after sales concerns of their customers.

Whilst working for W R Davies in Welshpool and Newtown he became concerned that the area was not highlighting itself and therefore residents and visitors automatically headed for the larger retail outlets of Shrewsbury without considering the businesses within the smaller traditional market towns and villages in the locality. The Pool Card was created.

Initially it was run by Mark and the committee of people who saw his vision for the card, until October 2006 when The Pool Card Ltd was formed and Mark was asked to work full time as Managing Director. He remains full of ideas and plans for the future believing that the sky is the limit for those that are open to new ideas and are prepared to work hard to reach their objectives.

I have been lucky to have an interesting and varied life although most of it I couldn’t tell you, so here is a printable version.

Born in London, I later moved to Cambridgeshire and Essex. I moved to mid Wales in 1992 and lived in Montgomery for 12 years, moving to Newtown in 2002. I love the area very much, the countryside is so beautiful and I try to be amongst it as often as I can.

Amongst various occupations, I, together with my sister use to import giftware from Israel and Sweden and sell to the retail trade; I have been a restaurateur, but have mainly been employed in advertising/marketing having worked in the publications department of Dun & Bradstreet, an American microfilm company, The County Times and now The Pool Card.

When Mark approached me to work for The Pool Card I was delighted because it is a business with meaning. I believe it is important to try and support the local community, spending money on your doorstep helps the local economy. Without our support local, independent businesses will not exist and there will be no individuality or choice of where we shop or receive one to one service.