FORMER Freshwater director Jon Hollins has established a new PR arm at business services firm Freshbaked.

Mr Hollins has poached Freshwater account executive Lyndsey Jenkins and said he will look to build a portfolio of clients at Freshbaked, which did use Freshwater for its public relations.

It is the latest move in a seemingly constant merry-go-round in Cardiff's PR sector, which sees staff moving from one company to another or setting up their own independent agencies virtually every month.

Alternative Investment Market-listed Freshwater has itself acquired Cardiff Bay-based Merlin, and both companies are due to move to new headquarters on May 12 at Raglan House in Cardiff Gate.

Merlin will trade to existing clients as Merlin Freshwater, with new business going under the Freshwater umbrella.

Mr Hollins explained the decision to set up a PR arm with Freshbaked made sense, with many potential clients already with that business in need of public relations work.

He said: "I have set up this month and my new agency will be part of the Freshbaked group, with the PR company being a new division which sits alongside its existing services.

"It's a new business which I have been working up since the start of the year. Freshwater did provide PR for Freshbaked but the Freshbaked group has expanded its portfolio of business services and the next natural step in that expansion was to set up its own PR division.

"Freshwater will no longer look after Freshbaked PR and that will be brought in-house.

"Our first member of staff joining us is Lyndsey Jenkins, who starts on Monday, and she is very well respected and well known in business circles and equally well respected from the media side of things."

Mr Hollins has also been acting as a consultant in Cardiff for Newport chamber of commerce, NGb2b, which has been active in the capital since the city's chamber of commerce went out of business at the start of the year.

He added: "NGb2b is still very much a major client and a key focus working to provide interim chamber services in Cardiff.

"These are all things that we are doing and will keep doing and they are a natural fit with Freshbaked PR.

"The Freshbaked group has about 150 clients and a lot of the companies that Freshbaked are working with don't have a public relations agency."

A spokeswoman for Freshwater said: "Cardiff has a lively PR industry, and long may it flourish. Freshwater will continue to provide our clients with the commitment and quality they are entitled to expect from a major UK-wide consultancy.

"We don't normally comment on staffing issues. However, there is no connection between the Merlin acquisition and the departure of Jon Hollins."

Freshwater's acquisition of rival company Merlin was made in February this year in a £1m deal, making it one of the largest communication consultancies in Wales.

Freshwater says that the merger will create a design and marketing department "capable of planning, designing and implementing cutting-edge communications campaigns".