Guild member Sarah Furneaux, a PR and communications specialist, has set up her own business – Limpet Associates Ltd – to service clients in the agricultural and related industries.
“I’ve worked in communications for many years in a variety of industries from equestrian to fashion to local government, on both the PR front and in the design and production of marketing material and newsletters and magazines,” says Sarah. “I had no experience of the agricultural industry until I joined RMIF – the Red Meat Industry Forum – but now I’m hooked!”
Sarah recently left Chamberlain, the agricultural arm of the Cambridge-based agency Ware Anthony Rust to ‘do her own thing’.
As an account director, she worked for Merial Animal Health, Dow AgroSciences, EBLEX, ASDA & ABP and Meat Training Council (MTC).
Prior to this she worked as Knowledge Communications Manager for BPEX and PR & Communications Manager for RMIF.
“With the RMIF, the main business objective was to get as many beef and sheep farmers as possible to engage in some sort of costings exercise to gain an understanding of how their businesses were performing,” says Sarah. “RMIF used a mix of PR and marketing to promote a simple costings programme, Snapshot, which was developed in conjunction with EBLEX.”
However, the most successful strategy was a phone questionnaire, which Sarah project-managed. Working with students from the Royal Agricultural College (RAC), a 97% conversion rate was achieved, far exceeding RMIF’s target.
“I’m sure my experience in other industries has helped me take a pragmatic view on what works and what doesn’t,” she says. “I’m looking forward to continuing to use my communication skills within agriculture and its allied industries to help businesses achieve their objectives.”
To this end, Sarah has a pool of freelancers and designers to support her work and she has recently undertaken and passed the CIPR’s post-graduate diploma.
Sarah’s can be contacted on 07747 445 410 or by email.
