For Steve Sowden and Jamie Allan, the past eight years at Intermarketing have been so transformative that sometimes even they can’t believe it. “We do pinch ourselves,” admits Sowden.
Back in 2011, the pair had led the management buy-out at the then 23-year-old Leeds agency that, while turning over in the region of £10million, was stagnating.
Sowden and Allan came out of the deal with 37.5% of the company each and have since succeeded in elevating it to another level. “We put everything into growing,” says Sowden. “We didn’t sleep very much for a few years and took a lot of well-managed risks that the team prior to us just weren’t prepared to take.”
Headcount has since grown from 50 to over 250; year-on-year growth is above 25% and its top-five place in the Prolific North Integrated Agencies ranking is now assured.
Such growth attracted the attention of sales and marketing specialist Advantage Smollan, who in June 2017 acquired the agency and have since fuelled “18 months of rapid growth”, says Sowden, with revenues for 2019 forecast to hit £40m.
