Billington Cartmell’s new owners appoint Gellett

Hutton Collins Partners has completed its purchase of the Billington Cartmell Group after taking an initial stake in the business five years ago. The founders, Ian Billington and Paul Cartmell, are leaving, and John Gellett becomes the new Group CEO. John has over 25 years’ experience of integrated and brand experience agencies and is supported by two of the industry’s most successful and significant players who are taking non-exec roles: Rupert Howell as non-executive chairman and Matthew Hooper as non-executive director.

The Billington Cartmell Group, whose clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, Morrisons and Panasonic comprises three autonomously-run agencies operating from premises in Fulham and Parsons Green:

– Billington Cartmell, the integrated agency

– the live media and experiential agency, Closer

– the creative agency, Brave

Apart from Ian Billington and Paul Cartmell, other long-standing key staff will remain in their existing roles within the Group including:

Jason Nicholas, with the Group for 14 years – group managing director

Alex Young, with the Group for 9 years – MD of Billington Cartmell’s Consumer Brands Division

Adrian Thomas, with the Group for 7 years – director, Retail

Eamonn Newell, with the Group for 10 years – director, International

Simon Callendar, with the Group for 14 years – creative planning director

Neil Davidson, with the Group for 4 years – group planning director

Liz Richardson, with the Group for 5 years – director, Closer

Ash Bendelow, with the Group for 7 years – director, Brave

Ian Billington and Paul Cartmell today issued a joint statement: “We are very proud of what we have built: a truly market-leading integrated communications group with real core strengths in advertising, direct, digital, shopper and experiential marketing, that employs over 180 people and generates over £16 million in gross income from an enviable global blue chip client list. We are indebted to our clients who have been truly loyal and supportive over the years”.

“BC has continued to grow over the past 5 years and has won three consecutive Agency of the Year accolades as well as many other awards including the Marketing Society Grand Prix and IPA Grand Prix. The BC management team we have developed has genuine breadth and depth of talent and we’re confident they will continue to deliver innovative work for our clients. It has been truly inspiring to witness the development of such a talented team of gifted marketing practitioners, and we’re confident they will lead this agency on to even greater success going forwards”

John Gellett said: “Billington Cartmell is a successful agency with a good reputation, great clients and many excellent people. The opportunity now is to build on the foundations laid by Ian and Paul and create a market-leading integrated agency group that fully embraces the new media and digital revolution.”

Rupert Howell said: “I have now seen the Marcoms sector from the agency, client and media owner perspective and share Hutton Collins’s conviction that there is an opportunity to build a new type of independent communications group based around the skills that Billington Cartmell has in abundance. That is why Matthew Hooper and I are delighted to be joining the Board to help John Gellett and the BC team achieve that goal.”