After an acrimonious split last year with its own IR group, Buffalo, New York-based integrated marketing firm Travers Collins again offers investor relations services through an alliance with start-up consultancy Park Avenue Investor Relations.
The two organizations will retain their independent structure and locations for now and refer appropriate business to each other.
‘Not everyone needs investor relations, but for those that do, it’s a cousin to public relations,’ says Travers Collins principal William Collins. ‘For 15 to 17 years, we operated pretty successfully in the investor relations arena. I don’t think we should walk away from it.’
As IR Magazine reported, the two employees who ran the Travers Collins IR group, Lynn Casteel and Jeff Schoenborn, abruptly quit last year to set up their own firm.
In October, Travers Collins filed a lawsuit alleging breach of fiduciary duty, breach of duty of loyalty, conversion of private property, misappropriation and unjust enrichment.
The loss of the IR business was between 10 percent and 15 percent of the company’s total revenue, according to Collins. ‘I won’t lie and say it wasn’t a psychological blow, but we’re pressing on,’ he says.
The question for the agency was whether to invest in new staff to rebuild the IR business or form an alliance ‘where we could get back into it without a lot of risk,’ Collins says. ‘Given the state of the economy, we felt this was probably a better solution for us at this point of time. … If we’re able to give them business, I’m sure there will be something in it for us and vice versa.’
