Yellow M Edinburgh management moots breakaway from head office

Yellow M’s Edinburgh office is believed to be in discussions over a management buy-out with company owner and founder Mike Dethick.

Yellow M Edinburgh managing director Ian Wright, formerly marketing director at Faulds, is thought to be leading negotiations to break away from the Newcastle Upon Tyne head office.

He is representing his senior management team, which includes head of account management Jill Taylor and creative directors Kevin Bird and David Isaac.

Dethick refused to comment calling discussions “a private matter”. Wright was unavailable for comment.

Yellow M Edinburgh has been pulling in substantial amounts of business for the company and managed to win a place on the Scottish Executive’s &£5.5m agency roster in July. It also handled advertising for the Tory Party’s Scottish general election campaign. The account helped the agency almost double its billings to &£9.26m in 2001 (AC Nielsen/MMS). It is ranked sixth in a list of Scottish agencies by billings.

It recently devised a &£1m television and outdoor campaign for the new-look Scottish broadsheet The Herald.

Dethick founded Yellow M in 1992 and opened the Edinburgh office in 1998. He was formerly creative services director at McCann-Erickson Bristol. The Newcastle office holds the Holland & Barrett, Rowland Chemist and Northern Sinfonia accounts, among others.

The Edinburgh agency has 18 staff members compared with an estimated 29 at Newcastle.