Women Who Launch: Frances Cottrell-Duffield of Tonic Communications

When I ask Frances Cottrell-Duffield about the thing people often get wrong about PR, she says: “That it's easy. To do it well is actually very rare.” As the owner of Tonic Communications, the award-winning London-based agency that represents some of the leading chefs and restaurants in the region, Cottrell-Duffield knows a thing or two about doing PR well. Tonic’s portfolio covers a wide range of clients—from chef Jun Tanaka and his Michelin-starred French-Mediterranean restaurant The Ninth, to Thai-British chef and author Saiphin Moore and her chain of Rosa’s Thai cafés, to all the restaurant and drink offerings at The Standard hotel in King’s Cross. Cookbook author and serial restaurateur Rohit Ghai, is just one of Tonic’s clients who has nothing but great things to say about Cottrell-Duffield. “We’ve worked together on a number of different projects and I personally found Frances and her team to be very professional and they delivered what they promised on time. I am sincerely grateful for all the hard work and diligence they’ve shown as it’s really given us a competitive edge in the market,” he shares.