Crawford Hollingworth, Sian Davies and Sarah Davies resigned last spring, following which “certain issues arose between us and the company including solicitation of the company’s employees” – that’s according to a statement released via the website of The Futures Company’s parent group, WPP.

The statement said: “We have now resolved all of these issues with WPP, Kantar and The Futures Company and a settlement has been concluded, the terms of which are confidential.

“We make this statement to apologise unreservedly for the issues which arose since we realise that we overstepped the mark when setting up our new agency when still employed by The Futures Company. We acknowledge that WPP, Kantar and The Futures Company are entitled to protect their business interests and with this apology look forward to putting this matter behind us.”

News of the departure of Hollingworth, Davies and Davies was announced in July last year, along with details of the resulting management reshuffle.

Further details of the trio’s new venture are not known at this time.