Interfocus chiefs quit for Haygarth start-up

Three top executives at Interfocus, the Lowe-owned sales promotion and direct marketing agency, resigned last Friday to launch their own company.

Deputy managing director Frazer Gibney, joint creative director Drew Saunders and account director Tim Doust are in negotiations with Interpublic managing director Matthew Hooper over the termination of their contracts. They are likely to launch their agency in January.

The business is to receive financial backing from the Hay garth Group, which claims to be the largest independently owned direct marketing agency in the UK.

Gibney says the through-the-line start-up will give Haygarth “the final piece of the jigsaw”.

“It is not going to be branded as part of the group,” he says. “This is going to be about ideas, not media. Any agency with an eye to the future thinks like this.

Hooper says: “They indicated they wanted to do a start-up and have some backing. The team we have here is such that people resigning doesn’t affect us. There have been two other start-ups from Interfocus: Positive Thinking and Liquorice.”