Smith & Milton Ltd founder, Howard Milton, has closed the London-based consultancy to concentrate on Smith & Milton Brand Ltd in Bristol.

Milton says, “The long-term plan for the business has been to build the Bristol company and eventually merge London into it. The need to close Smith & Milton Ltd was pre-empted by a number of factors, including the loss of one of the London office’s biggest accounts, the Legal & General business.

“Smith & Milton Ltd and Smith & Milton Brand Ltd in Bristol are separate companies and have been run individually since 2011 when we bought the majority of an existing agency. It was only in November that Jay Smith and I gained 100% control over the Bristol company, which is now thriving, so it made business sense to focus on that.

“Our strength remains as it always has been, to build enduring brands – something that applies as much to our own company as it does to our clients’. The recent appointment of creative directors Rob Wade and Keshi Bouri, based in the Bristol office, ensure that creativity remains the core of our business.”

The closure of Smith & Milton Ltd in London has also led to the redundancies of its three remaining staff.