Independent agencies dominate Prolific North’s new Top 150 Agencies ranking, accounting for almost 85% of the list. But behind the numbers is a sector largely made up of smaller businesses, each with their own ambitions, approaches to growth, ideas about how they compete and what comes next.
New analysis of the ranking, compiled by research partner Mustard and backed by the Alliance of Independent Agencies, reveals that 127 out of the 150 agencies are independent, privately owned or employee-owned businesses.
Together, they generate more than £920m in turnover and £105m in pre-tax profit, accounting for around two-thirds of the ranking’s total £1.42bn turnover. Of those 127 agencies, 118 reported a pre-tax profit.
READ MORE: The Prolific North Top 150 Agencies 2026: Full list
The Top 150 brings Prolific North’s previous Top 50 PR, digital and integrated agency rankings together into one list for the first time, painting a broader picture of the North’s agency sector.
And while the financial figures point to the collective strength of independents, the size of the businesses themselves tells another story.
Despite an average headcount of around 56 people, almost seven in 10 independent agencies employ fewer than 50 people, while 86% have fewer than 100 staff.
At the other end of the scale, a handful of much larger businesses have 200 employees or more, with APS Group leading on 724, followed by IDHL Group on 350, Visualsoft on 246 and Apadmi on 221. But what does this all mean for the agency landscape in the North?
The future of Northern independents?
With agencies facing growing pressure to compete for clients, attract talent and adapt to the impact of AI, there are different views on what comes next. For some, further consolidation could be on the horizon. For others, collaboration between specialist agencies offers another route to growth.
READ MORE: The £1.42bn agency economy – what Prolific North’s Top 150 reveals about the sector’s scale
For Rob Shaw, CEO of Leeds-based integrated marketing agency HUB, which features in this year’s ranking, the high number of smaller agencies suggests further consolidation could be on the horizon.
“Overall, I think the growth of independent agencies in the region can only be a good thing,” he says.
“Ten years ago, many of the leading independents sold to private equity or larger groups, which significantly reduced the size of the overall independent landscape. I think we are now back, once again, to an industry with many well-structured and well-run independents that can offer first-class services to the biggest brands.”
But he also adds the divide between the number of smaller independents at the top end of the list driving the majority of revenue with a “long tail” of much smaller agencies at the other.
“For me, that clearly shows there will be agency consolidations yet to come as larger agencies (some backed by private equity) will grow through acquisition as smaller agencies either struggle to compete or look to cash-out.”
Shaw, who sat down with Prolific North earlier this year to chat about HUB’s own growth and why independents still have the edge, believes an increased level of competition drives agencies to be better and is ultimately “good for clients and good for the sector”.
“Independents don’t need to try to be everything to everyone”
For the Alliance of Independent Agencies, collaboration between specialist businesses could become increasingly important, allowing agencies to compete for larger projects without necessarily expanding their own teams or services.
Clive Mishon, founder and co-chair of the Alliance, says he is seeing growing “momentum” among independent agencies across the North, with a depth of specialist talent spanning creative, media, digital and experiential services. He also points to how Manchester has fast become a particularly “strong centre” for independents, but there is “increasing confidence” growing elsewhere too.
“There’s a growing sense that brilliant agencies don’t need to be based in London to compete for ambitious clients and great work,” he explains.
APS Group, the agency topping the table of independents and agencies featured in the ranking, offers a prime example of how larger Northern independents are navigating an increasingly competitive market.
James Lawton-Hill, marketing and agency director at APS Group, says it remains a “tough market” with agencies having to work harder to win and retain business, making it more important to have a clear proposition and be selective about new opportunities.
For APS, that has meant concentrating on its strengths while working with complementary partners to broaden what it can offer clients.
He also points to the North’s “strong talent pool”, growth in areas such as events and experiential, and the impact of AI as factors shaping how agencies are now developing their businesses.
It’s a shift the Alliance is seeing more widely, with collaboration increasingly becoming a way for independent agencies to compete without trying to offer everything themselves.
That’s why the Alliance established The Agency Collaboration Group to encourage members to work and collaborate together, ultimately giving them a “competitive advantage”.
“Independents don’t need to try to be everything to everyone. By bringing together different specialist capabilities, they can stay agile while offering clients something much broader,” says Mishon.
“For us, the strength of Northern indies says a lot about where the agency landscape is heading. Talent is increasingly spread across the UK, strong specialist businesses are thriving, and there’s a real opportunity for independents to achieve more by working together.”
And being an independent agency in 2026 means that one agency “cannot deliver everything alone”.
“There’s so much specialist talent across the 26 specialist disciplines identified by Agency By Agency and across the independent agency landscape that effective collaboration between agencies offers the opportunity to take on bigger projects, deliver clients a greater breadth of solutions and compete with the larger networks,” adds Mishon.
“That’s why the Alliance set up the Agency Collaboration Group, to bring independents together, share expertise and unlock new opportunities.”
The figures show there’s no shortage of independent agency talent across the North, but also just how different these businesses are, with their ambitions and decisions about what comes next helping to shape the future of the sector.
