His barter company, which recently more than doubled turnover to £9.1m, allows companies to pay for advertising using their own products.

Miroma was established five years ago and, early on, Boyan worked with property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz. “I met him at a dinner party and he was telling me about what they were looking to do. I thought it sounded interesting, and I had some experience,” Boyan says.

He created a procurement portfolio for Tchenguiz. “Instead of creating spreads on rents, we looked at offering his tenants things from energy insurance and telecoms, to marketing, media and printing," Boyan explains.

“We would create margins through sheer economies of scale and pass back a percentage as a rebate. We realised there was an opportunity to create something more focused so we created this media buying company. Instead of passing on the rebate, companies would use their stock inventory to part-pay for advertising.”

The company has a few competitors but Boyan says they work in a different way “and don’t offer a risk-free solution”.

Boyan also has an online media company targeting small business buying media online. He says there are potential acquisitions in this space next year.

Related articleDownturn drives up sales for Miroma

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