Media Square restructures following “dire” performance

Media Square, the marketing services group, is restructuring after admitting its trading performance has been “dire” and †it has suffered from an “over aggressive acquisition strategy”. The group has reported a 14% drop in group sales to £85.3m for the six months to August 31, which is 4% dip on a like-for-like basis.

Roger Parry, group executive chairman, has outlined plans to restructure the company into three “core” divisions – advertising/PR, marketing and design – and closing or merging a number of “sub-scale and loss making” business units. The changes aim to increase new business and operating margins.

Parry, the former chairman of Clear Channel joined the group, which owns digital marketing agency Twentysix and below-the-line agency CMW, in July this year following the departure of chairman Kelvin Mackenzie and chief executive Jeremy Middleton in March and June.

He says the group has had a “torrid time” and attributes its problmes to an over-aggressive acquisition strategy, under-managed operational integration effort and years of corporate confusion. He adds: “These problems were mostly of the company’s own making, rather than as a result of market conditions.”