A “major” business restructure at Social has led to 10 staff redundancies and the closure of the company’s creative division for the curious after just over a year in operation.
The Manchester-headquartered communications group, which had around 45 staff based at a number of other offices across Leeds, Liverpool and London, has gone through a restructure to ensure the “future stability of the wider business”.
The bulk of the voluntary staff redundancies were made at the group’s dedicated creative consultancy for the curious, which was launched back in January 2022 with around eight staff but will now be closed. The video service at for the curious led by Luke Barnett has been reintegrated back into Social’s core business.
A number of affected employees took to LinkedIn, reflecting on their time with for the curious after it “shut its doors” for good last week.
One for the curious staffer posted that they had accepted voluntary redundancy citing the highs and “inevitable lows that come with working for a business navigating its own challenges”.
In a statement to Prolific North, John Quinton-Barber, founder and CEO at Social, commented: “At the start of this year, I restructured the business to ensure the on-going stability of Social. This decision has sadly meant that we have lost ten valued colleagues through a voluntary redundancy process.”
He added: “We have looked after those colleagues as best as we can and I’m delighted that most have found new roles. Social remains a strong business which is built on a solid foundation of ten years. We continue to look forward with confidence to a bright future ahead for our offices in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and London.”
In a recent LinkedIn post to mark the group’s 10th anniversary he wrote about the “mistakes and lessons learnt – and most recently painful”, referencing the challenges of leading a business through “Brexit, a pandemic, war in Europe and a cost of living crisis”.
The news follows Social achieving B Corp status last year and a reported increase in turnover to £3.4m in April 2022.
The group, which was founded in 2013, had established a number of new divisions in 2021 including Social Net Zero, a dedicated climate change communications consultancy; Social Tech Communications, which supports technology businesses; and Social Invest, which specialises in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) consulting, alongside creative division for the curious in 2022.
