Bamford Media, the company set up by leading Financial Planner Martin Bamford four years ago, has relaunched with a new name after the pandemic forced the business to make staff redundant and close its office.

The company has been renamed Bear Content and given a new focus, Mr Bamford said.

The young company, launched to provide media services to Financial Planning firms, found the pandemic tough and was forced to make staff redundant and give up its office. Half of the remaining team have also been put on furlough.

The cutbacks have left just three remaining staff, Martin Bamford and colleagues marketing manager Kathryn Watts and content production executive James Spooner.

Ms Watts has written a blog about the changes: https://bearcontent.co.uk/importance-purpose/

The company was launched four years ago to provide digital marketing to companies, particularly Financial Planning firms. It provides digital marketing, podcasting and other media services.

Mr Bamford, a Chartered Financial Planner, said that the pandemic had caused a lot of rethinking about the focus of the business.

In future it will continue to provide a range of digital services to Financial Planning and related companies but will also focus more on local businesses in its native Surrey Hills area. It will particularly focus on digital content production rather than the more comprehensive services it provided at launch.

Mr Bamford, who is active on YouTube and social media including Twitter, said: “It's been nearly 4 years since I created the business as a vehicle for delivering digital marketing services to others, especially in the world of Financial Planning. In that time, we've been through a lot of change, and the pandemic, in particular, prompted us to reassess our purpose.”

“The Financial Planning profession remains one of our key verticals but we will also be increasingly focusing on local businesses in the Surrey Hills, and delivering services around digital content production, rather than the more comprehensive service offering we launched with.”

Mr Bamford stood down from his role as managing director of Informed Choice in October 2019 to launch Bamford Media although he has retained the role of director of client education at Informed Choice with responsibility for investment research and marketing. He combines this role with his work at Bamford Media, now Bear Content.