The Midlands leading advertising, marketing and communications agency Palmer Hargreaves has bought out a rival to create a new regional company.

Palmer Hargreaves, voted joint Midlands Agency of the Year just a few months ago, has acquired Banbury-based Mint Communications, formerly BMP Countrywide.

The new agency will be known as Palmer Hargreaves Mint and will employ around 50 staff in Leamington Spa, the home of Palmer Hargreaves for the past 12 years.

The new agency will become the third largest in the Midlands.

Andrew Clift, managing director of the new agency, said:

"We have known each other for some years and have talked informally on a number of occasions. This move is strategically sound for both agencies.

"Palmer Hargreaves concluded that Mint had something that we didn’t, and vice-versa. By coming together we can now offer both sets of clients a significantly enhanced service while at the same time striving for new business."

The new agency’s client list now includes AMH Holdings, Blue Circle, Continental Tyres, The English Sports Council, Ford of Britain, Ford of Europe, Harrison Drape, Kraft Jacobs Suchard, Mecca Bingo, Moulinex Swan, PharMed, Research Machines, Rhone Poulenc, and Slick 50 Europe.

Mint Communications managing director Paul Cubitt becomes deputy MD – a move which gives Palmer Hargreaves Mint additional management expertise but also frees Clift to spend more time on client business in the UK and Germany.

The new management team also includes Palmer Hargreaves’ Dave Richardson and Mick Stoves, who has been made a director, together with Mint directors Andrew Stanbridge, Steve Woodcock and Randy Weeks.

Geoff Lye, the former chairman of Mint Communications, will work for the agency as a consultant.

Cubitt said:

"Palmer Hargreaves Mint, which has billing equivalent to £24 million, now gives clients who are looking for an out-of-London agency, an exciting, new, yet proven, alternative. We intend to make a major impact in new business and will be talking to prospective clients who are looking for a fresh approach backed by experience."