PR agency ASAP has been appointed to help Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (WLEP) reach out to every business in the county and help spread the message.
ASAP picks up the communications baton from betterpr which has handled the LEP’s PR on a pro bono basis for the first 12 months of its existence.
Betterpr managing director Juliet Betterton is a Worcestershire LEP business board member and is tasked with the communications brief.
She and LEP executive director Gary Woodman led the selection process which saw ASAP chosen from a short list of six agencies.
ASAP is headed up by former Business Report owner/editor Andy Skinner and John Duckers who, for 18 years, was business editor of the Birmingham Post.
They were selected for their ability to provide a news agency PR service, hitting the media at local, regional and national level with the message that Worcestershire is very much open for business.
Ms Betterton said: “Within the LEP and our local authority partners, we understand the LEP brief – promoting growth within the county.
“The task now is to communicate that far and wide and ASAP was the stand-out applicant with a pedigree that stretches back many decades in Worcestershire.
“During our first year, we’ve made huge headway as an influential LEP with active business engagement.
“Now we need to build on our achievements, and Gary and I look forward to working with Andy and John on what is an extremely busy project. They have really had to hit the ground running with
Business Secretary Vince Cable visiting Malvern Science Park on their second day in the job!”
For Andy Skinner it feels like a home coming.
“I started my journalistic career on the old broadsheet Redditch Indicator before becoming editor of the Redditch Advertiser at the tender age of 21.
“The LEP mission and message is very much what led me to launch the monthly newspaper Business Report in 1986 to reach out to local businesses and make them feel that they are not alone and there is help for them to grow and prosper.
“This is an exciting time both for Worcestershire’s LEP and for ASAP, and John Duckers and I are really fired up by this appointment,” he said.