BEHIND every great man is a great woman, goes the saying. But in the case of Partners PR, it was three great women.

When Hugh Venables decided to sell the successful York company he founded in 1988, he looked no further than the three women in his management team – Jayne Davies, Monica Green and Karen Nixon.

In spite of the recession, the trio have maintained Partners PR’s £1.5 million turnover and built on its ever-growing reputation.

That is more than reason enough for the new partners to be considered for the Women In Enterprise title in The Press Business Awards 2010.

But the battle against the economic tide was not easy. Jayne, who had been with the company since its inception and is now operations and finance director, described last year as “challenging”.

She said: “We have many clients in the property and construction and manufacturing sectors that suffered first and hardest in the recession. Many of our clients could not sustain their previous levels of marketing and PR and had to make cuts, which had an effect on our business.”

But the three partners had already identified their reliance on these sectors as a potential weakness and diversified.

Monica said: “While it was never our aim to be a specialist property and manufacturing-focused agency our reputation was strong and we naturally won more and more work in these and related sectors.”

She said,the firm’s portfolio includes education and training, leisure and tourism, events, professional services providers, care services, charities, restaurants and even a horse training yard – and recovering firms in the property and other sectors have begun to return.

Yorkshire clients include RHS Harlow Carr Gardens, in Harrogate, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary and the opening of an eco-friendly learning centre; York St John University Business School; and Venturefest, the free event at York Racecourse every February, which showcases to 2,000 delegates the county’s most inspiring science, technology and knowledge entrepreneurs.

On the strength of Venturefest, Partners was invited to join the pitch by Tailormade Conference Management for a new Venturefest-style project in the Midlands later this year.

Karen said: “We are seeing more and more collaborations like this, where specialists combine to create powerful teams with the strength in depth to deliver a fantastic service for clients.”