- JKR is a strategic branding agency operating from offices in London and New York, serving a blue-chip client base that includes AB InBev, Walmart, and Coca-Cola;
- The facility from OakNorth forms part of a club loan arranged with Lloyds Bank and Muzinich;
- It will support the secondary buyout of JKR by US mid-market investor, Breakwater Management, from Growth Capital Partners;
- The transaction reflects OakNorth’s capability to support Anglo-American businesses – bridging its deep relationships in both the UK and US markets.
London, Friday 11th September, 2026: OakNorth – the digital bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs – has provided a term loan facility to US mid-market investor, Breakwater Management LP, to support its secondary buyout of Jones Knowles Ritchie Limited (JKR) from their existing sponsor, Growth Capital Partners. The facility from OakNorth forms part of a wider club loan arranged with Lloyds Bank and Muzinich.
Founded in 1990, JKR is a strategic branding agency with offices in London and New York, specialising in brand strategy, identity, and brand experience for large multinational corporations. The business has built long-standing relationships with some of the world’s most recognised consumer brands – including AB InBev, with whom JKR has worked for approximately 30 years, and Mars and Kraft Heinz with whom it has worked for approximately 20 years.
Having made a deliberate strategic decision to focus its global delivery on its London and New York offices, JKR is investing in the continued expansion of its US platform. Recent new client wins including Intuit, TD Bank, Ford, and KFC reflect the growing breadth of JKR’s US client base beyond its established consumer goods heritage, with the New York studio increasingly a driver of group revenue alongside the longstanding London operation.
Breakwater Management LP, a US mid-market investor with directly relevant marketing services experience, brings both transatlantic reach and sector-specific expertise to support the next phase of JKR’s growth, including capability build-out, and account expansion.
James Nixon, Global CEO of JKR, commented: “JKR has always been a business built on the quality of the relationships we hold on both sides of the Atlantic, and finding a lending partner that genuinely understands what it means to operate across London and New York was important to us. What struck us about OakNorth was that they approached this as a business that inherently operates in both markets – not as a UK agency with a US office, but as a fully integrated Anglo-American studio. That understanding, combined with the speed and directness with which they engaged on the transaction, made them a natural partner in this process.”
Stuart Blair, Senior Debt Finance Director at OakNorth, continued: “JKR is an outstanding business – one that has built genuinely institutional relationships with some of the most demanding and sophisticated brands in the world, and managed to sustain them across multiple decades and economic cycles. What makes this particularly compelling from our perspective is the combination of a proven London platform and a New York studio with clear momentum, in a business that has deliberately structured itself to deliver from both cities. Supporting companies with a real transatlantic dimension is something OakNorth is increasingly focused on, and JKR – with Breakwater’s backing and the JKR team’s ambition – is exactly the kind of lower mid-market growth story we want to be part of.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
About OakNorth
Launched in September 2015, OakNorth is the digital bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. It was founded to address the persistent funding gap facing lower mid-market businesses (£1m – £100m turnover) – a segment that accounts for a significant share of economic output yet remains underserved by traditional banks.
To date, OakNorth has provided over £16bn in lending to thousands of entrepreneur-led businesses across the UK and US, supporting the creation of more than 70,000 jobs and generating more than $53bn in economic value. Throughout multiple economic cycles, the bank has maintained a highly disciplined approach to credit, delivering performance metrics that place it among the top 1% of commercial banks globally.
It is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Visit www.oaknorth.co.uk for more information.