Twenty years of Spring

Twenty years ago, Simon Hazelgrove and I upped sticks from London, where he had owned the country's largest architectural photography practice and I had been client services director at a global branding agency, to launch our own communications agency, Spring.

From a standing start, the agency grew to include Bollinger, Conservative Party, Moroccan National Tourism Office, National Trust and EDF amongst its clients. We won serious mainstream awards and maintained a national profile whilst focusing on the benefit we could deliver within our own region.

Why on earth did we decide to do it in Southwold?

Part of it was my desire to create skilled jobs within this pretty seaside market town. To build an excellent team combining career starters and people with serious industry chops was a joy. I believe that our access to the kind of big-name non execs we benefited from was almost entirely down to the location.

And then four years ago, three of our senior leaders took the agency over by MBO. Today, they complete the deal. Congratulations Glen Cone, Chris Abbott and George Bennett for steering the good ship Spring in your own direction. Now is time to start reaping the rewards.