Close-Up: Live Issue - How does the merger of Farm and Leith add up?(Farm Communications and Leith London merges)

The combined agency has a greater weight in London, but will it suffer from top-heavy management, Emma Barns asks.

According to all of the parties involved in the deal, the merger of Farm Communications and Leith London last week had nothing to do with combining one small and one struggling agency to make a bigger, healthier whole. It is, they say, all about aggressive growth.

The new arrangement, which sees Cello Group acquiring Farm and slotting it in with Leith, will result in a 40-strong agency managed by a joint team from both agencies.

Mark Scott, the chief executive of Cello, explains that the aim is to create a bigger force in London. He makes a point of stressing that the agency will be up to around 50 or 60 staff by next July and adds: 'Our objective is to double the size of the business in the next year.'

Jeremy Pyne, the former Leith managing director and the new agency's joint managing partner, also says that the deal is about adding scale.

'There comes a point when you want to get on bigger pitches, but you're not considered if you're not a certain size,' he says.

A name and a base for the merged shop are still being discussed However, the positioning of the agency as 'thinking-led' has already emerged. Pyne explains that planning will come first, with creative afterwards, saying: 'Cello is a top-end, thinking group and it makes sense for us to start with this in whatever we're doing too.'