Live events agency Sledge acquires pharma events specialist SWM Partners

UK-based live events agency Sledge announced, 25 February, it had completed the acquisition of SWM Partners, a specialist pharma events business based in Hertfordshire, UK. SWM organises meetings globally for pharmaceutical companies during the clinical research phase of evaluating new compounds. The business has been established for 23 years and has a turnover of c£10m (US$12.95m) The business has 20 staff. Robin Fawcett, Sledge CEO, said “SWM is a well-established specialist operator within the events industry. It has a solid client base and a key differentiator is the presence of five specialists in healthcare science on the payroll. We were very impressed by the SWM management team who will continue to lead the organisation.” SWM was founded and is run by Sue White and Dr Peter Thomas. White said: “We are delighted that we have successfully found a company which values the SWM Partners product as much as we do. The plan is that SWM Partners continues to operate from the same location, with the same personnel and offer the same quality services to our clients as it does currently. We feel sure that the injection of a dynamic partner such as Sledge will bring fresh ideas and innovative approaches to further enhance our offer. Peter and I will continue to work on projects as Scientific Programme Directors at SWM alongside our logistic teams.” Formed in 1991, Sledge is one of the longest-established privately-owned UK live event agencies and recently created an incentive travel division. Typically, the meetings organised by SWM are attended by between 50 and 250 HCPs and last for 2-3 days. SWM is a full service agency responsible for the entire event – including scientific planning support, logistics and content creation.