The Fishburn Hedges Group has acquired fellow Omnicom agency Pauffley, it announced yesterday (3 June).

Reputation management and PR firm Fishburn Hedges plans to combine Pauffley, a specialist corporate reporting firm, with its design and brand identity arm FHD.

Set up by Reg Pauffley in 1985, Pauffley was in its glory days the largest corporate reporting firm in Europe. It managed 24% of annual reports from FTSE100 companies and had a swathe of clients throughout the world, from Nokia to Electrolux, France Telecom to Daiwa.

But, over recent years, the increase in the number of competing design firms, and the change in emphasis from print to online reporting has seen Pauffley shrink. At its height, it boasted over 100 staff, but had shed most of these to just under 15. Despite its smaller size, it still boasted Barclays, Prudential, Deutsche Bank and Cable & Wireless among its clients.

The management team will be headed by FHD's Adrian Day and Pauffley's Patrick Eastwood, as managing director and deputy managing director respectively.

Day said: "The fit is excellent, as Pauffley's experience and reputation in corporate reporting take us to a different level and, importantly, provide us with a much better platform for developing our overall digital offer."

The new firm will be based in FHD's existing offices in Holborn.