Stone Junction announces new shareholder team
Stone Junction, the Stafford public relations agency, has added two shareholders to its ownership group.
The technical, technology and STEM communications and PR consultancy is now shared between consultancy founder Richard Stone and two long standing members of the team in Laura England and Jessica Phillips.
Mr Stone will continue as managing director, while Laura England will become client services director and Jessica Phillips director of agency brand.
This is the first time Stone Junction has created new shareholders since the agency’s inception in 2006. The move provides greater sustainability, an improved growth outlook and additional potential for further shares to be allocated in future — either to existing directors or to other members of the team.
Laura England was recently listed in PR Week’s 30 under 30 and is a former winner of the CIPR’s outstanding young communicator award for the Midlands. Meanwhile, Jessica Phillips won the PRCA’s professional of the year award for the Midlands in 2021.
Both have been at Stone Junction for eight years and in that time the company has grown by 429 per cent, from a turnover of just under £400,000 in 2016 to a turnover of nearly £2 million last year.
In the same period, the company has won 45 awards, including CIPR Excellence and PRide and PRCA Dare and Grand Prix. It has been listed in PR Week’s top 150 agencies twice, as well as Prolific North’s top 50 digital agencies and Campaign’s Best Places to Work.
“These shares, which come with full voting rights and dividends, have been allocated without cost to Jess or Laura,” explained Mr Stone. “I believe that independence is the most important factor in quality consultancy, to the point that an agency owned by a parent business is hampered in its ability to deliver honest and unbiased advice.”
“The same is true of the traditional agency ownership model. You get to senior director level and suddenly someone asks if you want to buy-in to a business you’ve helped build. The new shareholders are suddenly as hampered by bank debts as they would be by producing a profit and loss account every month for a parent company.
“This model is simply better; give shares to great people who do great work.”
Stone Junction is currently recruiting at all levels to support its next phase of growth.
