Buy out sees Ward and Camponi depart PWLC
Two of the remaining founders of troubled Leeds-based agency PWLC have insisted that their decision to leave the company was “totally amicable.”
Rick Ward and Pete Camponi are leaving the company following a management buyout from the third remaining partner, John Longworth, last month.
The creative duo has now joined forces with production company Mob North in a bid to work on more television projects. The pair also hope to freelance for a number of agencies.
Speaking about the decision to leave the company Camponi, insisted that the move was something that all three had agreed on. He commented: “We felt that we had personally achieved everything that we could. We were never really at the forefront of the business anyway and found that actually fronting an agency is incredibly hard and it does take it out of you, particularly as a creative. Signing up with Mob North gives us challenges and goals.”
Ward added: “During our time with the agency we got heavily involved in making TV commercials and we wanted to do more of that. It is an exciting and new challenge for us.”
The pair added that they were contracted to work with the agency until the end of last month, with the last campaign worked on before then being Skybet.
Meanwhile, PWLC has yet to announce the replacement of the team, although an announcement is understood to be imminent.
The development is a blow for the agency, which has in the past twelve months also witnessed the departure of founder Mike Phillipson to join Leeds-based agency Propaganda.
The move prompted clients Fox’s Biscuits and The Car People to move their accounts out of PWLC and into Phillipson’s new agency.
Meanwhile, rumours are still circulating within the industry and trade press that PWLC’s largest account, DFS, is on the move too.