When Lee Adams first co-founded Cantarus back in the early 2000s, the goal wasn’t to build one of the North’s successful independent digital agencies.
It began with something much smaller in the form of a simple idea to build a digital product “akin to Spotify” alongside his brother Darrin Addams and a friend.
The trio eventually switched their home offices for a move into their first office in Cheshire, and that’s when it all started to feel “real”.
“From there, we grew very quickly to the point they couldn’t fit us in the car park anymore!” Adams laughs.
READ MORE: Growth to Gold returns this November – here’s why you should be there
“We realised we needed to relocate. Manchester came up, and I had a very strong view that we needed to be near the universities, as it was where all the talent was. We went for it and never looked back. It has been a massive boom for the business.”
The relocation paid off. Today, Cantarus employs 80 people, with additional offices across London and Moldova, and the agency is ‘on track’ to hit £10m in revenue in the next few years.
As part of Prolific North’s deep dive series into the North’s creative industries, Adams reveals how the agency’s Manchester HQ has been central to ‘sustained 20% year-on-year’ growth for more than a decade.
“Talent has been the powerhouse of the business,” Adams explains. “We can offer competitive costs compared to London agencies while having access to fantastic talent. It has been key to business growth.”
Strategic moves – acquisitions and expanding to the US
A recent milestone for the agency was the acquisition of CRM specialist FlexRM in April, which will operate as a separate company within the Cantarus group.
“The acquisition was primarily driven by one of our major sectors, which is membership,” he explains.
“We didn’t have that CRM component, so we were partnering with other CRM vendors to some degree of success, but we saw an opportunity here to take that to the next level.
“The FlexRM team also saw an opportunity to access our market, so it made a lot of sense. We think it’ll be a big step towards us hitting that £10m revenue target.”
READ MORE: Unveiling Prolific North’s deep dive series into the North’s creative industries
Beyond acquisitions, Cantarus has already built a presence in southern England and recently opened a nearshore development centre and office in Eastern Europe which was a “big step forward” for the agency.
But the agency’s latest big move is a ‘careful’ and steady expansion into the US.
“We currently have a director of North America, he has 20 years of experience and is the tip of the iceberg over there for us. We’re hoping to build the team up over there as we start to win more clients and more momentum there.
“We’re very aware that British businesses often go to America and fall flat on their face – and we wanted to avoid that so we’ve taken a very careful approach.
“We’ve hired in expertise. Our chief product officer is American as well. So we’re taking it slow and steady and building up a brand presence.”
Standing out in a competitive market – and what’s next for Cantarus
Cantarus was recently named as one of Prolific North’s Top 50 Digital Agencies for 2025, climbing ten spots up the ranking into 25th position.
But the rankings also revealed a tough climate as pre-tax profits for the North’s digital agencies have dropped 63% year-on-year despite the sector powering nearly £818.5m for the economy.
READ MORE: Prolific North’s Top 50 Digital Agencies List 2025
For Adams, the data reflects what he’s seeing more widely across the industry.
“A lot of companies were existing post-Covid. I think there are lots of businesses working very hard but making very little money – and that’s a depressing place to be.”
At Cantarus, he says the agency is “really focused on profitability” and wins deals not at the expense of margin.
“I suspect a lot of organisations out there are just winning revenue and not winning profit, and that can be quite difficult to compete with if they’re always willing to low-ball other agencies, then it’s a race to the floor,” he explains.
Fuelled by a recent acquisition, a pool of talent, and a ‘careful’ approach to US expansion, CEO Lee Adams is keen to prove that growth doesn’t have to come at the expense of profitability.
“We try to step outside of that and differentiate ourselves.”
On what that differentiation is, it’s a combination of customer service and nurturing the agency’s relationships with clients.
Cantarus’ Net Promoter Score sits at +75, which he says is well above the industry average of +30, and the agency has gone a ‘full year’ without a single negative feedback score on 3,000 service tickets.
“We’re really proud of that. We dedicate about a quarter of our headcount solely to looking after existing clients. We still go out to win new clients and new work and that fuels our growth. But we’re probably unusual in that we’re profitable without relying on net new business. We don’t have to win new clients to make a profit at the end of the year.”
The agency’s focus now is on “deepening” its skillsets and offering while continuing to “grow the business” across the UK and the US.
“The US is the exciting new market, but I don’t want everybody to think we don’t care about the UK anymore because it’s very much our core market and by far our biggest,” he explains.
“But we certainly want to become more international.”
