BTA and Allam set up venture

Poster companies British Transport Advertising and the Allam Group have formed a joint venture sales house to sell all their roadside stock. The move has precipitated speculation of an eventual takeover of Allam by BTA.

The new sales house, National Advantage, which will employ ten sales staff from both companies, will become the fourth largest roadside contractor in the UK, with 5,700 48-sheets and 1,150 96-sheets.

It will be managed by BTA group head Lee Wright and overseen by both companies’ sales and marketing directors. BTA will be the legal principal for contracts and will handle sales on its computer and administration systems.

BTA has confirmed that the two companies will work together in other areas in the future including site development and posting operations.

The Allam group is rumoured to have been the target for acquisition by all of the UK’s major poster contractors, but its chairman, Wyn Allam, is known to be against selling.

BTA sales and marketing director Julian Macey denies that the joint sales venture indicated an eventual takeover by BTA. He says: “The rationale for the deal is to make both companies more competitive through joint efficiencies, it is not to effect an eventual acquisition.”

BTA and Allam started marketing 1,800 48-sheet sites last year within a number of branded packages. The deal does not affect Allam’s four-sheet sites.

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