Start small with big ambitions: Cartwright’s founder talks us through the last 20 years

Fresh from her revelations about the challenges and highlights of 20 years at the helm of Cartwright, our founder Liz Cartwright demonstrates her remarkable memory of the people and clients she took on – and the many office moves - since day one, in her own words.

April 2006. I decided to be a freelance journalist (and PR specialist). I set up as a sole trader and swiftly created the company name ‘Cartwright Communications’ with a lilac and lime logo. My office was a room at home, with the kids’ hamster called Custard for company. 

My early weeks and months were spent writing news stories and features for regional and national newspapers and magazines. 

My first PR client was The Open University – providing media relations support for their graduates in Leeds. There were some great PR stories and really inspirational tales - a refuse collector who gained a science degree and the working mum of five who graduated in history.

May 2006: Cartwright gained two more clients – housing provider Derwent Living and commercial property company heb.

June 2006: The company was getting busy and already receiving new business referrals from happy clients. 

July 2006: Getting bored of one-way conversations with Custard, I moved Cartwright Communications into a small office above an estate agency in West Bridgford – and shared the space with a pal.

September 2006: After much deliberation and nervousness, I took on my first employee – a University of Nottingham graduate called Katherine Simon. From day one, she was amazing. Soon after, with more work coming in (including a chain of estate agents), I recruited my former newsroom pal Mhairi McFarlane (now an international best-selling author – read her books, she’s amazing).

January 2007: I took free start-up business advice from Nottingham Business Venture (NBV) – and it later became a client. 

Mid-2007: Having outgrown our base in West Bridgford, we moved into the Lace Market at serviced office space. And we created our first ever website. We were thrilled to start working with commercial property agents Innes England. Its MD Matt Hannah is not only a brilliant client to this day, but a trusted friend of mine.

Later that year, we recruited Charlotte Anscombe as an account manager. Another brilliant recruit who is still a pal. We didn’t stay in the Lace Market for long and moved our office to a small room with our client heb. The best of times with this amazing bunch!

2008: On the move again! This time we shared with creative company Victoria Creative and the fantastic Annie Hamilton and Mike Conwill – at their office in St Peter’s Gate. (Annie was the one who gave me the shove I needed to go freelance in the first place – and to her I will be forever grateful.)

This was the year when we gained a lucrative place on a local government framework to deliver communications. And we started strong with a win – delivering the Bridge the Gap campaign bringing older and younger generations together across Broxtowe borough in Nottinghamshire. It was a brilliant campaign – and we won a CIPR gold award for it.

2008/09: A tricky time as the UK went into recession. I found myself having long conversations with clients on their difficult trading conditions. Some clients had to leave us due to their financial situations – but came back again very soon, realising that marketing is vital, and should move to the top of the list, in a tricky market. 

March 2009: I bit the bullet and moved from being a sole trader to a limited company.

2010: A big account win with UK Trade & Investment, providing communications to the Midlands region. Very proud of our small team to win this.

2013: The year that Annie Brafield (our future managing director) joined the business as an account manager. She got to work immediately on built environment clients and I could see from an early stage that she had lots of knowledge. Great talent.

We moved in with our pals RizkMcCay (now SANDBOX), the marketing and creative agency, in Ropewalk, Nottingham.

November 2013: Cartwright won the Women in Business Awards.

July 2013: Still a very small team, we won ‘Small Business of the Year’ at the Women in Business Awards and received a silver award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations for our social and digital media work. 

March 2014: I went on my first visit to the global property event MIPIM in Cannes to support existing clients and make new connections. It turned out to be a game-changer for Cartwright – and the company has attended every year (apart from Covid year) ever since.

2015: We focused on enhancing our digital, PR and marketing services, laying the foundation for our subsequent growth as a full-service marketing agency. 

October 2015: Now with a 15-strong team and bursting at the seams, we moved (again!) into 17 College Street, Nottingham.

August 2016: Rose Hayes, now our joint managing director, joined us from WPR in Birmingham. 

We celebrated ten years – now with 17 people in the Cartwright team. And I celebrated my 50th birthday – with the arrival of Tom Hardy in the office.

2017: Rose and I met the inimitable Marcellus Baz, the founder of Switch Up. We have had a long and happy working relationship with the charity ever since and it is our great pleasure to support him in all his fantastic work for the city, the county and the UK.

2018: Katie Nelson and Tom Snee, now our directors, arrived at the agency - Katie as account executive and Tom as account manager. Proof that we train and support our teams and like to promote from within.

2019: I became a board member of ProCon Nottinghamshire – a regional community of built environment partners with the aim of supporting members to take advantage of a solid network of potential work and learning.

September 2019: We won a (very) competitive pitch with Nottingham-based Pork Farms and Walls. Our biggest win to that point – thanks to the amazing work of Rose.

November 2019: Having supported Nottingham Hot Property for several years, this time Cartwright really got involved. I took to the stage to sing Electric Six’s High Voltage with my pal Ash Cowdrey of Chord Consult – and the rest of the team, led by Tom Snee, did a Spice Girls number. Hot Property sees amateur singers and musicians get together every year to put on a brilliant show – and raise thousands for charity.

2020: Covid hit. Maybe an overused term but I call it “the worst of times and the best of times”. A hideous pandemic that swept the world, Covid affected many of our clients both personally and professionally and, of course, our team. However, we saw huge positives – seeing our people continue to work hard for clients while looking out for each other was hugely uplifting. 

2022: Moved to our home in St Mary’s Place, in the Lace Market, Nottingham, in July. We purchased a former lace building, which was in a bad state of repair, and spent months renovating it. We’re very proud of what we have achieved. A big year for Cartwright as we also set up an office in Birmingham in Chamberlain Square to support our West Midlands clients.

Cartwright was ranked number six in the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women by global authority Great Place to Work. We were also ranked Top 20 Best Places to Work nationally.

September 2022: Set up our London office with two members of the team in Farringdon.

Also in 2022, Cartwright was named one of Europe’s most inspiring workplaces, ranking 25 in the EMEA top 50. 

April 2023: Annie and Rose were given equity in Cartwright. Meanwhile, we were now supporting several charities including The TV Workshop, Juno, Switch Up and more. Social value is very important to us – and we use a tool called Loop to measure all the good work we do, now clocking up 1,189 hours a year in support.

2023: We were ranked number 42 in the UK’s Best Workplaces – above industry giants. We also have a Best Places to Work certificate with 96% of our people saying it is a great place to work compared to a 54% average for typical UK companies. Also, in 2023 we ranked number 24 for Best Workplaces for Wellbeing, reflecting our investment in staff mental health and professional development.

June 2023: Tom Snee and Katie Nelson both become company directors.

October 2023: Due to our London team’s expansion, we moved our office to The Society Building in Fitzrovia.

2023: Cartwright joined the board of The International Building Press, the organisation that supports journalists and showcases talent in journalism.

September 2024: I flew back from a holiday for 24 hours to pick up the Outstanding Achievement Award for ‘services to property’ in the Midlands. A huge moment for me – and then flew back to France for the remainder of the holiday and to celebrate!

April 2025: The biggest Cartwright rebrand since our inception – along with a new website and office ‘merch’ for the team. We also started our journey to BCorp.

August 2025: Alex Jones, our head of digital, becomes a director. After only a short time with the agency, he tripled our digital team.

November 2025: Named as the Agency of the Year at the Construction Marketing Awards. Absolutely overjoyed with this major win.

January 2026: We take on our 40th employee. Our highest number across three offices.

April 2026: Rose Hayes and Annie Brafield are named as joint managing directors – with me as founder. Plus we picked up Silver in the Medium Agency of the Year category at the CIPR Midlands awards.  And PR Week announced we are the 120th top PR agency in the UK. We are also the 14th fastest growing PR agency in the UK – and the only one in the Midlands to get in the top 20. What a way to celebrate 20 years!