The sale of Relish completed today (8 November).
While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, in its full-year results announcement prior to today’s sale, Kin + Carta said it hoped to achieve £15m-plus from the combined sales of Relish and campaign planning and data agency Edit.
Relish was founded in 2011 and manages sampling services for brands in the beauty and FMCG sectors and specialises in cross selling services to insert non competitive samples with “synergistic partners”, for example placing beauty samples in e-commerce packages from fashion retailers.
Clients include ASOS, BakedIn, Craft Gin Club, Deliveroo, Estee Lauder, Edgewell, Ferrero, HelloFresh, Missguided and PrettyLittleThing.
Whistl CEO Nick Wells said: “Product sampling plays an important role within the marketing mix and with our market leading expertise in targeting and campaign planning, particularly for online retailers and FMCG brands, the addition of Relish will enable us to broaden our portfolio of channels available to advertisers.”
As a result of the deal, Bath-based Relish’s 20-plus staff will relocate to postal delivery company Whistl’s new Bristol office. However, it will retain its branding and leadership team, headed by managing directors Natalie Betts and Jonny Hall, and remain a standalone business reporting to Whistl Doordrop Media managing director Mark Davies.
Kin + Carta CEO J Schwan said: "Whistl Doordrop Media is the perfect partner for the Relish team and we are sure they will continue to grow and develop under new ownership as part of the Whistl Group. I’d like to thank Jonny and Natalie for their leadership and the entire Relish team for their contribution to Kin + Carta.”
Kin + Carta was born in 2018 when St Ives rebranded itself after it exited print.
