10m Kwik-Fit up for pitch

Kwik-Fit, one of the biggest accounts in Scotland, is to review its 10m advertising account. After months of speculation, incumbent agency The Morgan Partnership has confirmed the account is open to pitch.

The exhaust and tyre centre account, traditionally Scotland’s largest, was recently eclipsed by The Leith Agency’s Honda car win. Kwik-Fit spent 10m on advertising in the past year.

John Morgan, chairman and managing director of Glasgow-based The Morgan Partnership, says: “This time Kwik-Fit is talking to agencies. I understand some letters have gone out. If one of our largest clients is talking to other agencies we are concerned, but we know the job we do for them and sincerely hope we will prevail. We are not wringing our hands.”

The loss of Kwik-Fit would have a potentially crippling impact on The Morgan Partnership, which has a total billings of 11.49m, according to ACNielsen-MEAL. Kwik-Fit sales and marketing director Doug McKenzie refused to elaborate on the pitch or whether a shortlist of agencies had been drawn up.

Persistent speculation has dogged the Kwik-Fit account, which the Morgan Partnership has held since 1992 when the business was split between Morgan and Timberbush, which merged in 1994.

Last week Robin Shuker, the Morgan Partnership’s deputy managing director, left after one year at the agency. Anna Moult also quit last week, just two months after replacing creative director Kit Marr.

Recommended

Amazon launches UK incarnation

Marketing Week

Bookpages, the British online bookseller acquired by Seattle-based market leader Amazon.com in April, has relaunched under the Amazon.co.uk brand, promising UK book buyers it will match the price discounting of its American parent. According to Bookpages founder Dr Simon Murdoch: “We will be aiming to quote prices equivalent to those in the US, after delivery […]

86m Vauxhall blow to Western

Marketing Week

Western International Media has been rocked by Vauxhall’s dec ision to review its entire 86m UK business. The move will determine the future of parent company InterPublic Group’s UK media operation. InterPublic has already revealed plans to merge its two international media brands, Western and Initiative Media, into a new company called Western Initiative Media. […]

Australian abroad

Marketing Week

Cadbury’s marketing director, the affable and relaxed Australian, Mark Smith, could not be more different to his predecessor, Alan Palmer. Where Palmer is tall, dark and coolly patrician, Smith is cheerful, rosy-cheeked and approachable. Palmer, the reserved Englishman, was reputedly inaccessible to ad agencies, while Smith, who laughs and winks at his own jokes, has […]