An Agency Called England 'restructures' following legal tussles and closure of Kent base
A major restructure has been announced at An Agency Called England, which has closed its Kent office and installed a new management team in Leeds, while the management of its Birmingham office have also departed.
Mark Hall, head of digital, and Jamie Pearce, head of business development, have taken over daily responsibilities for the business as a result of the restructure.
England co-founder Alison Cawthorne has left the board but remains in an advisory capacity, and CEO Tony Stanton will focus on leading the business's strategic growth.
“We have taken some brave decisions but sometimes you have to do the difficult things”, said Stanton. “Closing Kent was not an easy decision, but the office had been loss making for some time and was starting to affect the overall business. It was the right thing to do and we have retained the goodwill of the majority of the Kent clients, who we continue to work with.”
As part of the restructure the firm has also made two staff redundant in Leeds, one in print buying and the other in credit control.
“It is regrettable when people have to go, but the long term interests of the business must be our key priority. The redundancies in back office functions were a product of the restructure and streamlining program," he continued.
England has enjoyed a number of new client wins as it shifts focus to its digital team having relaunched its mobile strand – GOGO – as well as its SEO business, improveSEO.co.uk as it aims to focus its offer towards digital.
He continued to explained that plans to open an office in Birmingham have also been halted following the company's decision to focus on its core operation.
“We had a false start in Birmingham after a year of planning when the team we thought we had recruited let us down. This has gone legal so less said the better at this stage.
“Its been a challenging 12 months, but its all part and parcel of running a business in what’s been the deepest recession in 80 years. Whatever anyone says, marketing services has been hit hard and we are doing what any prudent business should, and cutting our cloth according to our needs
“It hasn’t been a smooth ride. We’ve had an angry ex-landlord try to wind us up, and some employment matters to deal with including a TUPE transfer of a team from the Kent office to a reluctant client. We have had to act swiftly at times and this hasn’t always gone down well. But we are in a much better position now than we were 6 months ago and winning new work every week," he concluded.