Allied Carpets rebrands to fight takeover

Allied Carpets is to undergo major rebranding as part of desperate efforts to stave off a takeover of the struggling business.

The retailer may review the agency arrangements for its &£7.5m account under new chief executive Geoff Brady, who has been brought in from Kingfisher-owned retailer Woolworths to turn round the beleaguered chain. Earlier this month, he brought over Katie Spriggs from Kingfisher’s Big W hypermarket division as marketing director.

Brady has attacked the company’s former marketing strategy and claims to have revived sales with a new “added value” positioning. Allied’s previous marketing director Phil Harrison was asked to resign earlier this month.

Brady is also planning to put in place a longer-term “everyday low prices” strategy similar to those of retailers such as Asda, Tesco and his former parent company Kingfisher, in an attempt to rescue profits and fight off a number of bid approaches.

Retailers Brown & Jackson, backed by investment company Wassalls, plus a number of unnamed companies have made approaches to take over the company in the last month.

As part of the new strategy, it is understood Brady intends to increase the company’s media spend. New TV work, developed by incumbent agency bds beechwood to fit the added value strategy, is expected in the next two months.