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BYLN:

Wickes, the DIY retailer, has appointed David Bradley as marketing director. He was previously head of marketing for SmithKline Beecham’s oral care division, but left for a senior marketing role at Asda. The position failed to materialise after Asda appointed Michael Flemming as marketing director, and the marketing department was restructured. Former Wickes marketing director Edwin Birnbaum becomes managing director of Wickes Continental.

Orangina has appointed David Relph from Campbell Distillers as its country manager for the UK and Ireland. Relph will help oversee the 5m TV advertising, marketing and sampling programme planned for the UK this year. A new TV campaign design by Y&R launched last month.

Eurotunnel investors will seek reassurance today (Wednesday) at the annual shareholders’ meeting that the Anglo-French Channel tunnel operator will not look for more cash to bail it out. The consortium is faced with an 8bn debt burden.

Vauxhall has responded to the creation of Ford’s personal leasing scheme through a 50:50 offer allowing people to pay for half of their car in advance and the remainder two years later.

John Donovan, of sales promotion agency Don Marketing, says he will have a team picketing Shell’s London headquarters for four days a week distributing a leaflet detailing his company’s grievances against the oil giant (MW May 26).

Thomas Cook Group is now wholly owned by Westdeutsche Landesbank after the German bank acquired the final ten per cent from the LTU Group.

Emap Consumer Magazines has moved Sue Hawken, managing director of Emap Metro, which publishes titles such as Q and Smash Hits, to head its women’s group, Emap Elan.

Barclays Bank launches the UK’s first virtual shopping mall today (Wednesday) which, it claims, offers secure purchasing of goods and services over the Internet by plastic card.

ARM, the direct response TV specialist, has launched the Tele-Users Action Group to investigate weaknesses in the telemarketing industry caused by the spiralling use of DRTV and carelines. The initiative aims to identify the scale of the problem which includes DRTV users losing up to 60 per cent of call traffic because bureaux are unable to handle the response.