AMV.BBDO set to lose St Ivel brief after sale

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO (AMV.BBDO) looks set to lose the &£6m St Ivel Shape advertising business to Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, following the brand’s &£32m acquisition by Groupe Danone.

Last week, St Ivel’s parent company, Uniq, announced it was selling the brand to the French manufacturer in order to focus on the chilled convenience food sector. Uniq will continue to produce Cadbury’s dessert brands under licence, as well as franchised brands, including Tweenies and Teletubbies yogurts.

Rainey Kelly handles all of Danone’s brands in the UK, including Actimel and Bio Activia. Young & Rubicam is also among Danone’s European roster agencies.

Since 2000, the Shape account has moved several times, initially from D’Arcy to AMV.BBDO, then to HHCL & Partners and finally back to AMV.BBDO, which relaunched the brand in the spring with a &£6m television campaign (MW March 21).

A number of marketers have left St Ivel in the past year. Marketing director Tony Lucas was made redundant at the end of last year (MW November 29, 2001) and Mike Hodgson, the commercial director who took on marketing responsibilities following Lucas’s departure, left two months ago to become managing director of own-label food manufacturer Greencore (MW June 13).