I am delighted to announce that Space & Time Media Limited successfully completed a management buyout from Emerge Limited on Friday last week. This includes its interests in associated businesses Adgenda Media and EG Media, and our very successful e-DM arm, Refreshed Direct. As Chairman of Space & Time Media I led the buy-out, with Sandy Gil (MD) and Tony Moore (Group FD) doing the heavy lifting. The whole team is hugely excited about our future and the plans we have to deliver even greater media support to our wonderful clients.

This is the third business to exit Emerge, as my co-founder Matt Fleming heads towards his well-deserved retirement. Advertising agency Aylesworth Fleming was acquired from the group by the very exciting marketing communications group OLIVER back in September, and Whistle PR completed its own MBO in December, led by its highly respected MD, Sarah Kent. Matt and I have retained ownership of our award-winning and brand focused agency Thinking Juice, but it will continue to be run by the existing, extremely capable and talented management team.

It has been sixteen years since Space and Time first opened its doors and we purchased our first advertisement on behalf of a client company. It remains a source of some considerable pride for me that the company concerned in this inaugural booking is still a client to this day. Over the better part of two decades the agency has grown substantially, and in the process it has also had to change and adapt to the massive complexity of the modern media marketplace. It is essential to our business ethos that whilst staying abreast of this fragmented media landscape we also continue to offer exceptional client service and fresh, smarter media thinking. To this end, in the coming months we will be expanding our award-winning Search department and adding to our Broadcast, Social Marketing & Listening, and Content Generation teams. We will also need to provide some direction and insight for all this additional resource, by continuing to grow our Strategy and Planning team.

Last year Space and Time grew 22% year on year, and we’re forecasting a further 27% growth in 2016. Development on that scale simply cannot be achieved without amazing clients who believe in what we do and how we do it, or without our incredibly solid and respectful relationships with media owners, contractors and associated partners. So I would like to offer a huge thank you to each of the people and businesses we engage with on a daily basis. We have an exciting journey ahead, I can’t wait to get started.

Peter JonesChairman