Hill Dickinson’s corporate team has acted for the shareholders of Stoke-headquartered international creative agency, CIC Creative (CIC), on its sale to Chorley-based Blink-Photo Limited.

Blink-Photo, operating under parent company Blink Group Limited, has acquired CIC for a seven-figure sum. Prior to the acquisition, Blink Group employed 50 staff members across Blink-Photo and sister company Blink MCR with a combined turnover of more than £4m. Following the deal, CIC's 36-strong team will join the Blink Group.

The team at CIC, led by managing director, Nicola Tayler, will stay in their current roles and will continue to operate as normal across its offices in Stoke and China.

Hill Dickinson corporate partner Ian Riggs led on the transaction with support from associate Harriet Watson.

Steven Livesey, director at Blink Group, said: 'We’ve been looking to diversify our services for a couple of years now so when CIC became available we jumped at the chance. It’s a company that we have been aware of for a while and it’s always produced incredible work.

'We’re getting an exceptional ready-made team with a ready-made customer base from CIC. The specialisms of the two-company’s complement each other well.'

Jon Hills, commercial director at CIC, added: 'Becoming part of Blink Group strengthens CIC in terms of our skills and facilities, it also offers a huge boost to our clients and what we can offer them.

'It’s a pleasure to be working alongside Steven and Emma and we are looking forward to the future.'

CIC operates as a full service creative agency, providing CGI, branding, video production, product design and digital services to clients Victoria Plum, RKW, Morphy Richards, Wrights Food Group, Port Vale Football Club and MoBike.

Blink-Photo was formed in 2006 and clients include N Brown Group, Sainsbury’s, House of Fraser and Booths.