Miles Calcraft to merge with How

Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy is to merge with How after the smaller agency started up, following a breakaway from FCB in April last year.

The move will bring the &£8m Waitrose business – How’s biggest client – to Miles Calcraft, along with its existing ten staff.

Creatives Ken Hoggins, Chris O’Shea and Mark Wilson will join the board at Miles Calcraft. Their roles will involve working across Miles Calcraft’s accounts, which include P&O Cruises, Debenhams, Thorntons, Tetley Group, Diageo and COI Communications.

How was operating from the London office of Miles Calcraft, which held a minority stake in the smaller agency. The change will be effective from next week and was announced to Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy staff yesterday (Tuesday). It is understood that no money changed hands for the merger.

Miles Calcraft chairman Jeremy Miles says: “We are gaining ten talented people and a phenomenal piece of business in Waitrose.”

How managing director Mark Wilson, who spoke recently about his desire to win “no more than five clients on top of Waitrose and sustain an agency that concentrates all its efforts and attention on fewer accounts”, says he is certain Waitrose will be served even better by the new arrangement.

Wilson says: “With the depth of experience and resources, we can provide a better service than we do now. The desire to create outstanding work for an appropriate number of clients hasn’t changed.”