Busy West Country PR firm expands to open London office

A Westcountry public relations company has been bucking the national business trend since coronavirus hit the economy. Devon-based RAW Food & Drink PR has not only expanded its client base during the lockdown, it has even reversed the much-publicised flow out of London and opened an office in the city.

At a time when a great many London-based companies are closing their doors, RAW founder Hayley Reynolds believes her company’s business model and ethos has helped its business to grow. 

“We were operating under what’s now known as the ‘new normal’ before the phrase was invented during the lockdown,” says Hayley, who set up the company with husband Jonathan after a dozen years working at the top end of the food and drink public relations industry. “We formed RAW nine years ago after coming down from London to live in Devon having realised there were a number of talented and experienced people who’d also moved out to the countryside.  

“Many of our team are young mums with experience of working for some of the UK’s top agencies, but who were at home raising families. Just because they work from home in rural locations doesn’t mean their talent or experience is diminished in any way. So we were a team of home-workers before home-working became the new-norm.” 

However, a steadily increasing workload means that RAW has eventually opened a London office. “It may seem to be bucking the trend, but as quite a few London PR agencies have closed their doors, we have been picking up work from clients within the food and drink industry. 

“We have asked the highly experienced Scarlette Matthews to run our new London office precisely because we are now acting on behalf of some fairly big companies on a national level, such as Lindt chocolate and Kamado Joe.”

Scarlette, who originally comes from the South West, commented: “I enjoyed eight years working in London agencies - but I was impressed by the creative and intelligent way in which RAW works and operates. It's a truly innovative agency operating from one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

“The creativity within the team is second to none - and with an industry like public relations, a great deal of the work can be done remotely. However, it is handy to have someone in the capital city for instant last minute face-to-face meetings - and I am really proud to be representing the Westcountry in that role for RAW.”

As for the recent upturn in business, Hayley believes an economic downturn can actually stimulate an industry which is based on communication. 

“Businesses which survive hard times tend to be the ones with a genuine reason for existing in the first place,” she says. “They are the companies which have genuinely been set up to do good and interesting things. They are the ones who are constantly looking at innovation. The ones looking ahead into the future…

“We prefer to deal with clients which tick all those boxes. Take Westaways, for example, and their amazing story which has allowed them to be the first meat producer in the UK to use fully environmentally friendly packaging. 

“Then there’s Trewithen Dairy - the innovative Cornish company doing everything in its power to encourage more environmentally friendly dairy farming techniques. 

“We are working with people who set trends, and that is a PR dream,” says Hayley. “Our clients are generating stories - good stories - and with the help of our editorial director Martin Hesp we are helping to tell those stories.

“Martin has more than 40 years of journalistic experience and he understands how to interpret complex stories and tell them to a wider audience. Which is vitally important because the changing face of the media in general means that PR is so much more than it ever was before,” she added. 

“It’s no longer about working in impressive city offices with big expense accounts - it’s about getting down to brass-tacks and telling real stories about real people and real companies doing real things or creating fabulous products, which in turn create wealth within a local economy and give rise to real jobs.” 

Among other clients, RAW looks after the PR for Luscombe Drinks, Food Drink Devon, The Box Kitchen and Bar (Plymouth), Sharpham Wine, Salcombe Gin, Sharpham Cheese and Salcombe Brewery...