A Bath-based marketing agency has hired an external recruiter in a bid to more than double staff numbers.

TheAgency, which has offices in Bath and London, has signed an agreement with Bristol recruitment firm Ad Lib.

The deal has been designed to speed up recruitment and cut costs while providing a single contact point for staffing, as well as negotiating fees on behalf of the marketing firm which was launched in Bath in January last year.

TheAgency partner Amy Stobie said Ad Lib's understanding of the business, its plans for growth and the local talent pool are essential for them.

The firm's director, Saman Mansourpour, formerly ran his own digital agency in London but left the capital for the South West to maximise on the region's talent pool.

He said: "The South West is really interesting and there has been a real boom out here, particularly in Bath and Bristol, around digital communications and advertising.

"There are a lot of key people down here from key developers and key programmers and creative personnel you can't get in London. It is forcing London agencies to seek satellite offices in this region."

TheAgency currently employs 12 staff at a studio in Upper Borough Walls and has signed up nine new clients in the past 12 months.

It has already worked with firms from BMW and Kodak to Pepsi.

The company beat its predictions for turnover in the first year by 40 per cent and Mr Mansourpour,

said he was hoping to expand the firm by a further 150 per cent by the end of the second year.

He said: "We will focus every penny of our client's money on them selling products or services or getting a return at the same time as building their brand.

"Traditionally you build brands and drive sales separately but we marry the two together."

Mr Mansourpour said clients had seen the effects of recession and turned to his firm to promote themselves ahead of their competitors.

He said: "From what we have seen, smaller companies are doing very well, large companies are weathering the storm but the mid-size firms are getting hit. We are hearing that the worst of the recession should be over in our sector in terms of redundancies just after Easter.

"Marketing companies will then be looking to consolidate over the next 12 months."