Healthcare PR and medical education consultancy Red Door Communications has been bought by marketing services group Creston.

Set up in 2000, Red Door has rapidly gained a strong reputation in the pharmaceutical industry, and has many leading companies as its clients, including GSK, Roche, Novartis and AstraZeneca.

The company was recently named European Healthcare PR Consultancy of the Year at the inaugural Sabre Awards and is also the current Communique Consultancy of the Year.

Creston is a diversified marketing services group, and has purchased Red Door for £13.5 million, making it the latest in a series of acquisitions.

Re-positioned as a marketing services group in 2001, Creston has bought six other companies: international market research company Marketing Services Limited; direct marketing and CRM company The Real Adventure Marketing Communications Group; national channel marketing communications company EMO Group; PR consultancy Nelson Bostock Communications; qualitative market research business CML Research; and advertising and communications group DLKW.

Together these companies boast a range of blue-chip clients including Lloyds Black Horse, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Tesco, Toshiba, Canon, BMW (UK), MINI, Pfizer, Cow & Gate, Bacardi-Martini, Nestle Rowntree, NEC, NTL, George Wimpey, Scottish Courage and Vodafone.

Red Door was founded in August 2000 by Catherine Warne and Julia Harries and by 2004 the agency had a turnover of £3 million and employed a team of 32.

"In Creston plc we have found a partner who shares our ethos and passion for our work," said Warne, managing director of Red Door.

"We are confident that joining Creston will help us achieve our full potential as a leading specialist healthcare PR agency and further our organic growth both in the UK and internationally, whilst allowing us to retain the unique elements that have made Red Door Communications one of the fastest growing and most successful agencies in our field."

Red Door will continue to trade under its existing name and Warne and Harries will stay in their current roles for at least four more years.

Don Elgie, chief executive of Creston said: "In a tightly competitive field, Red Door Communications is one of the most successful healthcare PR agencies, with an exceptional track record of both client and staff retention and a high percentage of organic growth."

Creston's offer for Red Door included a deferred, performance-related payment of up to £6.7 million, 25% of which will be invested in a profit share scheme for the agency staff.

pharmafocus@wiley.co.uk