St Luke’s tipped to pick up 3m Clark account

Shoe manufacturer Clark International is expected to hand St Luke’s its 3m advertising brief. At present it is at TBWA.

The company, with brands Clarks, K Shoes and Springers, put the account up for review at the beginning of December when marketing services director Rosemary Carr initiated talks with a number of agencies.

It is unclear whether the account will include advertising in Europe, the US and the Far East.

One source says Clark is cutting advertising in international markets to concentrate on the UK.

The review comes after the company brought in a new chief executive, Tim Parker, at the end of 1995. He joined from electronics manufacturer Kenwood.

TBWA won the Clark business in July 1995, after it centralised its advertising.

The company had previously used BMP DDB Needham, McCann -Erickson Manchester and TS Alliance International.

The win plugged the gap left in TBWA’s portfolio after it lost the Timberland shoe business, which moved to the Lowe Group in December 1994.

Clark has a turnover of about 700m a year and brought in pre-tax profits for the year to January 1996 of 24.8m, up 26 per cent.

St Luke’s denies it is about to pick up the account.