Instinctif racks up £1m move cost

Public relations group Instinctif Partners ran up costs of £1 million on moving office to Gresham Street in the City from Tower Hill as part of a rebrand, accounts showed today.

But profits last year before exceptionals rose 21% to £5.5 million and revenues climbed 9% to a record £41.9 million at the group, whose flagship financial PR agency used to be called College Hill.

Chief executive Richard Nichols said the “biggest growth” came from clients such as eBay and Direct Line wanting to improve internal communications and employee engagement.

He said rebranding virtually all its agencies as Instinctif made sense: “What people are not looking for is individual specialists. There’s a great opportunity for a single brand with great expertise across all the different practices.”

Private-equity firm Vitruvian owns 50% but an imminent exit is “not on the boardroom agenda”, he added.