Shock as PR firm Staniforth is axed

ADVERTISING agency TBWA has closed down its public relations arm Staniforth.

The business, which had offices in Manchester and London, closed with immediate effect on Wednesday. This was confirmed by TBWA but no more information has been released.

In a brief statement TBWA said the move was linked to its strategy to focus on “core creative agencies”.

Tom Wong, marketing director of TBWAUK said: “As part of TBWA’s strategy to focus on core creative agencies Staniforth PR has closed for business this week, this is following a period of constultation with staff.”

Several years ago the agency employed 60 people across the two offices and it was advertising for a new account executive as recently as September. It is thought around 12 worked in the Manchester office in Didsbury.

Staniforth was led by managing director Rob Brown. It became part of the TBWA network, which is owned by the US giant Omnicom, in 2002 after being sold by its founder and managing director, Phil Staniforth.

Its clients included Nissan, Aviva, Tata and British Cycling. Latest accounts for Staniforth limited show gross billings at the firm fell 36% from £1.2m to £804,953 in the year to December 2011. The company made a pre-tax loss of £40,000 compared to a pre-tax profit of £70,000 the previous year.

Close