The sale of Unity, which was founded in 1996, follows reports last month that J Walter Thompson had been in talks to buy the firm but agreement had foundered over plans to fold the agency completely into JWT.
Ingram's new business, The Ingram Partnership, will focus on helping clients to build their brands strategically, both nationally and internationally, and is offering itself as an alternative to traditional advertising and marketing agencies.
As well as buying media-neutral agency Unity, Ingram has also snapped up London-based brand-building agency The Gathering. Ingram says the new business will combined the skills of management consultancies with the powers and insight of branding and advertising agencies.
"We have put together a highly experienced team in brand-building and communications strategy," Ingram said. "We're adding the discipline and rigour of management consultancy skills and it will be my job to ensure we stay absolutely connected with the real world of business. We are offering senior management a real alternative."
Ingram received £64m after the sale of Tempus to WPP in November 2001. Since selling the media business he founded, he has launched Genesis Investments, which last year backed a management buyout of The Non-League Paper, the Sunday newspaper for supporters of non-league football clubs.
As the first step in building his new company, Ingram is recruiting business strategists who will combine with Unity and The Gathering to allow The Ingram Partnership to offer brand and communications strategy services.
Ingram is providing £10m to finance the new company and is on the look-out for other potential purchases that could enhance and broaden the consultancy's offering.
Alongside Ingram, the founding partners are Ditlev Schwanenflugel, an ex-McKinsey management consultant, Duncan Bruce and Marc Cox from The Gathering, as well as Ivan Pollard and Andy Tilley from Unity. The Ingram Partnership has also appointed Alastair Rhymer, ex WPP and JWT, as finance director.
The consultancy will launch with a blue-chip client base that includes Bosch, B&Q, Cadbury Schweppes, Carphone Warehouse, The Guardian Media Group, Kraft and Lucasfilm.
The Ingram Partnership also has an advisory board that includes some major industry figures, including Richard Eyre, former chief executive of ITV, Terry Neill, former chairman of the worldwide board of Accenture, and Andrew Seth, former chairman of Lever Brothers and Added Value, the strategic marketing consultancy.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to create an organisation that has both the talent and the freedom to deliver genuine, high-level, impartial advice to clients looking to leverage their brands," Pollard said. "Most importantly, we will be totally independent."
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