BWM Australia founders buy their agency back from Enero

The transaction makes BWM Australia's largest independent agency. 

"When we sold to Enero six years ago, they were a different company named Photon," Belgiovane told Campaign Asia-Pacific in a phone interview. "That was pre-global financial crisis, and Photon was very exciting in the context of the ad industry. It was an Australian group, and that appealed to us."

Since then however, Photon has gone through some hard times, running up a debt of about US$475 million, which forced the group to sell off its five field marketing and retail agencies to Navis Capital. The group renamed itself Enero in April this year and announced a new strategic direction. 

"The group had changed to some degree," Belgiovane said. "It was still a very good person but no longer the one we married, so to speak. Their objectives had shifted, and as they were selling companies to reduce their debt we thought it would be a good opportunity for us."

The three partners, who go back 15 years, have been 're-engineering the business' for the past year and a half as well as driving new business growth since the agency lost Telstra a year ago. BWM now has staff of more than 120 and full-service offices in Sydney and Melbourne. Its clients include Kmart and GE Money, and revenues now exceed US$21 million thanks to the recent wins of REA, Leggos and Amcal. 

The re-acquisition frees the founders up to "have the freedom to service our clients in a way that really suits this omni-channel environment we're working in", Belgiovane said. As an owned agency, "you get a bit corporate", he added. "This allows us to focus on the product."

The industry can look forward to seeing a lot of growth and excitement from the agency, with a focus of creativity across the channels, Belgiovane promised. "People will be quite surprised I think in the next few months, and we'll have a bit of fun," he said.