AN award winning young entrepreneur who founded a creative digital agency in York has appointed an online fashion specialist to help grow his latest retail focussed venture.

Ryan Atkins, co-founder and former director of The Distance, is preparing for the launch of his latest business Allies; a digital retail agency specialising in commerce technology and growth services.

Ahead of going live in March this year, Mr Atkins has appointed Richard Hatfield to the role of retail director, starting with immediate effect.

Mr Hatfield joins Allies from national fashion magazine brand Grazia, where he was managing director of Graziashop.com. Before that he was chief operating officer of York-based online retailer Coggles, which enjoyed growth to £5 million in online revenues over five years.

Mr Atkins, a previous Young Entrepreneur of the Year winner at the Press Business Awards in recognition of his work with The Distance, which he left in April last year, said: "Richard joins Allies at a time when we are deeply investing ourselves in understanding being a retailer.

"His role will be threefold, firstly he will be running our soon to launch incubator where we invest time and money into retail start-ups leveraging our technology and growth services at their core.

"Secondly, he will be leading initiatives within Allies to truly align our mindset and that of our retailer clients.

"Finally he will be helping our consulting team workshop, scope and deliver increasingly complex requirements for our clients, bringing his retailer side experience to the table."

In his role at GraziaShop Mr Hatfield oversaw the launch of the e-commerce venture, scoping, designing, developing, and bringing on board retail partners before focusing on customer acquisition and growing the business.

He said: "After successfully launching Graziashop.com in November 2014, this truly is an exciting new chapter in my career.

"To be given the opportunity by Ryan and his team to take the reigns of the retail ventures of Allies is a privilege and an inspiring challenge."

Allies was originally founded by Mr Atkins in May last year. It will be based in Blake Street, where it will operate as an e-commerce incubator to build, invest in and grow early stage retail start-ups based on their existing technology and growth services.

Mr Atkins said: "The goal with Allies was to create a winning formula of technology, methodology and highly skilled staff that instinctively speak the same language as their retailer clients. Allies as a brand represents an uncomplicated statement of intent, 'we are in this together'."