A bitter row has broken out over the formation of a new market consultancy association after four consultants became disillusioned with the current system.
The Association of Professional Market Consultants (APMC) was formed last week after a group of four consultants broke away from its existing partnership with The National Association of British Markets Authorities (NABMA) believing it had ceased to give them due prominence or support their work.
NABMA has referred market authorities to the four consultants - Marketplace Europe Ltd, Michael Felton Associates, New Markets Solutions and Quarterbridge Project Management Ltd - for a number of years but relationships broke down after the formation of NABMA’s own in-house consultancy, NABMA Consultancy Services, nine months ago.
Following this, NABMA offered the companies now in the APMC a deal in which there would still be opportunity to tender for any work emanating from NABMA members but could not be given “approved” status as that would involve a system of monitoring, it said.
But, in a statement issued by Jonathan Owen, director of Quarterbridge Project Management Ltd, he said the APMC were “increasingly concerned” about NABMA’s policies and expressed concern over its impartiality.
“Their chief concern has been the increasing reliance of NABMA management on commercial sponsorship from Market operating companies and equipment suppliers. The [APMC] believe this poses a threat to the impartiality of the Association,” he said.
He added: “The consultancies regret the need for this action after so many years of fruitful co-operation with NABMA and its members but feel their treatment has been shabby and ill-conceived. They will of course continue to co-operate with NABMA on national policy initiatives that support the Markets industry as a whole.”
The APMC will now market its services direct to NABMA members and other Market Authorities.
But NABMA chief executive Graham Wilson told freshinfo the APMC’s claims were a fallacy: “I resent the implication we are impartial as the management board has made it very clear that we are not influenced by our sponsors.
“Our only funding comes from subscriptions and sponsorship so the consultancy has offered us the chance to have another revenue stream - we have always been happy to refer people to the four consultancies in the past and have tremendous respect for them but we do not have the capabilities to approve and monitor them now.
“We have not officially heard from them that they had rejected our offer we put on the table in April and continue to hold out the olive branch. We have always offered them a service in referring authorities to them but it has never been a fee sharing agreement as there’s no way of measuring what work comes to them through us. I’m very sad it has come to this but we cannot offer a closed shop market to people and we offer people all the options available.”
Chris New, specialist markets consultant at New Market Solutions, told freshinfo the four consultancies needed to set up the APMC to increase its marketing power: “We had been relying on the support of NABMA through advertising on its website and in its brochure but we’re not appearing in the brochures and it’s giving its own service much more prominence online.
“The main function of the APMC is for the stakeholders to be heard and for them to be able to progress with their marketing. How can NABMA say we do not have the credentials to be ‘aprroved’ when the original credentials were based on our guidelines and I have a number of testimonials freely available to show the quality of our services?”
