PLMR, the Westminster-headquartered integrated communications agency, has acquired Social Communications Group, the northern comms agency, headquartered in Manchester with significant offices in Leeds and Liverpool, which known for its work in infrastructure, housing, placemaking, regeneration and devolution.
The deal comes as the centre of gravity in British government shifts from Whitehall to the English regions, just 10 weeks after the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, set out the biggest transfer of power out of Westminster in a generation. Under the Cabinet statement of 31 July, mayors will keep a share of locally raised income tax and business rates, take greater control over transport investment, 16 to 19 technical education and employment support, and be able to pool budgets across public services. New strategic authorities are due to be operating by the end of 2028.
That model of government was built in Greater Manchester. Social was founded there and has since expanded into Yorkshire and the Liverpool city region. Its clients across these regions are working in close partnership with directly elected mayors, combined authorities and devolved settlements that the rest of England is now being asked to follow.
Social has worked with every established mayoral combined authority in the North, having supported the Convention of the North group of northern mayors, civic and business leaders for six years, and has also delivered major campaigns, conferences and investor engagement initiatives for Greater Manchester Combined Authority, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, South Yorkshire Combined Authority, Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
The deal, for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, creates an independent communications group with annual income of circa £12 million and 110 colleagues, working from offices in Westminster, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Coventry, Ipswich and Glasgow. It gives clients senior counsel a short walk from Parliament and equally senior counsel in the city regions where decisions are now being taken and money spent.
Social was founded by John Quinton-Barber in the winter of 2012 in Sale, on the outskirts of Manchester, with the stated ambition of transforming communications in housing, placemaking, regeneration and infrastructure. It grew up alongside Greater Manchester’s devolution deal and has become one of the North of England’s best known agencies, with an award-winning video and design capability and a client roster spanning infrastructure providers, housing associations, developers, local authorities and universities.
Social’s clients include Lovell, Extra MSA Group, Caddick Developments, JLL, Allia, and Sustainability for Housing, The Growth Company, Fusion 21 and The City of Liverpool College. They will join a PLMR Group client roster that already includes Jet2, Moderna, Pip & Nut, the Royal Veterinary College, Adecco and Booking.com, adding further depth across sectors spanning major consumer brands, healthcare, education, transport, infrastructure and the wider built environment.
Both PLMR and Social are certified B Corporations and both feature in the PR Week Top 150.
John Quinton-Barber continues to lead Social, has committed to the business for a minimum of four years, and joins the PLMR Group Operational Board. Social will trade as “Social, part of the PLMRGroup”.
John Quinton-Barber, Founder of Social, said:
“I started Social because I believed our industry could do communications in housing, placemaking and regeneration better, and because I wanted to build a business rooted in people, communities and speaking fluent human. Fourteen years on, I could not be prouder of what we have built and, most importantly, the brilliant team who have built it with me.
“Greater Manchester showed the country what happens when decisions are taken by people who know the place, and the devolution agenda has had a significant impact across the North in recent years. Our clients have been embracing place-based working for years. The rest of England is now catching up, and with PLMR we can take what we have learned here to clients wherever devolution reaches.
“For some time, I have been thinking about what the next chapter for Social should look like. I didn’t want a deal for the sake of doing a deal. It had to be with the right people, with a business I genuinely respected, and it had to create opportunities for our clients and our colleagues that we simply couldn’t create on our own.
“That is why I believe this is such a brilliant deal for Social. I have great respect for PLMR. Kevin has built an exceptional independent communications business and, the more time I have spent with him and the wider PLMR team, the more convinced I have become that we share the same values, ambition and belief in looking after our people. This feels like a genuine partnership and a coming together of two businesses that can make each other stronger.
“It gives Social access to outstanding public affairs expertise in Westminster, a much broader range of specialist services, greater investment in technology and AI, and opportunities across the UK and internationally. Equally, Social brings PLMR our strength across the North, our expertise in the built environment and our PR, creative, video and engagement capabilities. Put those things together and I think we have created something pretty special.
Kevin Craig, Founder and CEO of PLMR Group, said:
“Every agency in this country is facing a market that is changing faster than its business model. Some will wait to see what happens. We have chosen to build something with the scale and the range to seize the opportunity.
“Power in this country is moving out of Westminster. Under this Prime Minister, decisions on housing, transport, skills and growth are going to the mayors and the city regions, and Manchester is the template. What people have started calling Manchesterism is now national policy. Clients need advisers who understand both ends of that relationship: the Whitehall departments that set the framework and the combined authorities that spend the money. Very few agencies can offer both. From today, we can.
“What we are announcing today is a coming together, not a takeover. Social strengthens our PR offer, our built environment offer and our design and video capability overnight. Social’s clients gain access to Westminster and to sector specialisms in education, health, public affairs, energy and sustainability and award-winning digital capacity that very few regional agencies can offer. PLMR’s clients gain genuine depth across the North of England, in the places where the new settlement is being built. There is a real reason for clients on both sides to buy more from us than they could before.
“Social and PLMR share the same desire to do right by our people and to give them exceptional training and careers. Social is also exceptionally well run and phenomenally well connected across Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.
“Our ambition for the group is to reach £20 million of income and to be one of the most successful and best regarded independent communications agencies in the country, known for client impact and values, and as much at home in Manchester as in Whitehall. Today is an exciting next step on that journey and we are so excited to welcome John and his team to the PLMR family.
The enlarged group brings together public affairs, public relations, corporate communications, planning and consultation, digital and paid media, video, design and research, with specialist practices in education, health and social care, energy and sustainability, the built environment, housing, transport and infrastructure, food and retail, and technology. Together the two businesses can advise clients on engagement with Whitehall, with mayoral combined authorities and with the new strategic authorities as they are established.