Speed Communications and Bray Leino merge to create £5m PR agency

Roberta Fuke of Bray Leino will become chief executive and deputy chairman, while Will Whitehorn, who has worked closely with Bosomworth and the Speed team for the last three years, will become non-executive chairman.

It is expected that the combined entity will generate revenues in excess of £5m.

Fuke said: “Speed and Bray Leino individually have extremely impressive track records of success. By combining the talents of the teams the opportunity to create a major new force in the PR industry is significant. Combine that with the fact that the culture, approach and ambitions of each consultancy are amazingly similar and it made the decision to merge the two businesses one of the simplest decisions we’ve ever had to make.”

Bosomworth will handle the operational managing director role in London, with Weir and Pepworth delivering the same operational support for the Bristol base.

Said Bosomworth: “We’ve always been ambitious for growth and this merger allows us to create an extremely exciting new business, led by a highly experienced management board. The merger will deliver real synergy - enabling our clients and teams to benefit from extended expertise and so deliver the big ambitions of all. To say we’re looking forward to the future together would be to significantly underplay just how delighted we are to be joining forces.”

Speed clients include Adidas, GSK, Lucozade Sport, The Economist and The FT, while Bray Leino counts Virgin Media, Samsung, Remington, RAC and Wincanton among its clients.