Chelgate is an independent, British PR agency, with its Headquarters in London, offices in the North of England, Romania and Brussels and an international network of associates around the world.

The firm combines great strength in traditional public relations and media relations with an exceptional understanding of new media, Internet PR, Web marketing and e-commerce.

Other specialist services include product PR and business to business promotion, issues and crisis management, public affairs, government relations and financial communications.

The firm was founded in 1988 by Terence Fane-Saunders. Today it has branches in London, the North of England, Romania and Brussels as well as a strong network of associates worldwide.

Chelgate's own style is unusually discreet and low-profile, but its clients include some of the UK's best-known businesses and a broad spread of major multinationals. At the same time, the firm is equally at home working with small and medium size companies, professional bodies and associations, as well as distinguished individuals.

International PR is one of the firm's strengths. Its Europe region headquarters is located in Brussels, and a network of carefully selected associates throughout the rest of the world ensures the effectiveness of its multinational programmes.

Chelgate's management team offers a wealth of professional expertise. Every Chelgate counsellor has a track record of proven, relevant experience and this ensures that client business is never delegated to inexperienced or unqualified personnel. Programme management and account handling structures are very flat: the approach is closer to a law partnership than a typical PR firm.

Lean overheads and tight financial management are also reflected in realistic fees to clients. While Chelgate pays well for the best executive talent, and invests readily in the resources needed to service our clients, flamboyant expenditure and runaway expense budgets are no part of the Chelgate style.

So what kind of clients do Chelgate represent?

You may notice that there’s no client list on this site. There’s a reason for that. There’s a reason, too, why we say very little about specific activities on behalf of individual clients.

We think that when clients appoint Chelgate, they have the right to expect professional discretion. Many of our assignments involve acute issues and crises, and very often the last thing needed in a delicate situation is the high profile announcement of the appointment of public relations advisors. In fact, more than half our client relationships are subject to formal confidentiality agreements. But even when that’s not the case, we think our clients should always have the right to expect professional confidentiality.

Also, when a crisis is past, and the dust settled, you won’t find Chelgate claiming credit for its brilliant crisis management. If there is credit to be claimed, we think that credit must go to the client. We may have advised, and we may have implemented, but the client directs, carries the risks, makes the tough decisions. That’s truly where the credit lies.

Often, too, when a crisis is past, it’s in the client’s interest for the event to fade from the public mind. A PR firm that keeps the memory of the disaster alive through articles, case studies, conferences seminars and events celebrating its own crisis management skills can only be doing its client a damaging disservice.

Of course, from time to time, the news that a client has appointed Chelgate can be used to the client’s benefit. Where this is the case, we make no bones about wringing the maximum publicity benefit from the announcement. For example, one small community campaign group in North Yorkshire won national media coverage from the announcement, while on another occasion the appointment of Chelgate was turned into a news story around the world for a Zimbabwean opposition group.

But of course, many of our clients, and plenty of our assignments have no great sensitivity or confidentiality. Even here though, we tend to be low-profile. We don’t believe in standing between the client and the spotlight. Time and again, Chelgate have demonstrated our ability to deliver publicity in bucket-loads! But if there’s publicity to be won, we want that publicity for our clients, not for ourselves. Of course, we don’t make a particular secret of these clients, and these assignments. In fact, a casual browse through this site will turn up plenty of clues. But nor do we provide a formal list, because, by its nature, in excluding many of the most difficult and challenging assignments we work on, the list would be unrepresentative and misleading.

Of course, potential clients have the right to ask about our relevant experience, and in the confidential environment of new business discussions, we are able to talk in a little more detail.

But, prior sector experience is not always the best guide to the best PR firm for the job. Some of our most successful campaigns and rewarding client relationships have been with clients where we have had no previous experience of the sector. PR expertise, rather than sector experience, is what made the difference.