Confirming our earlier comment about the level of activity in the PR consultancy market, Australian public affairs consultancy  Kreab and Gavin Anderson have appointed John Redwood (ex Creo and BBG) to head up their New Zealand office to open shortly after Easter.   With a strong heritage in investor relations and financial PR, the new consultancy is likely to  compete strongly in this market in New Zealand which some observers in the corporate world believe is seriously under-serviced at the moment.

Meanwhile the pr shop has announced that they are opening in Sydney next week to service their Trans Tasman clients.   Directors Pippa Lekner and Sally Frewen opened the pr shop in 2005, specialising in consumer PR with clients in the food, beverage, retailing and not for profit sectors. 

Their new Sydney consultants are Jane Stabler and Dana Edwards.

SPICE GIRLS SPLIT - AMICABLY

No, we're not talking Ginger, Posh, Baby, Scary and Sporty - we're talking Sarah Alexander Wilcox and her long time business partner Jackie Ellis (formerly Fairbairn) who have agreed to an amicable divorce.  However there's a happy ending to the split - Spice  Communications continues to exist in their new offices in the Textile Centre in Parnell under Jackie's leadership, and Sarah gets to go off to the Hawkes Bay where she has set up her new business PR ink , obviously drawn by the charms of her non-business partner, Labour List MP Stuart Nash. 

Jackie Ellis confirms that in line with market trends,   Spice has had an influx of new business calls already this year with projects that were put on hold by clients now being reignited.  The revived interest in PR is apparently coming from brands and businesses in all sectors, corporate and consumer clients, still conscious of budgets and spending, but realising that now is the time to start building on their profiles and awareness using PR.