BBH resigns 30m Bertolli account

Bartle Bogle Hegarty has resigned the European advertising account for Unilever-owned Italian food brand, Bertolli. The business was understood to be worth £30m when the agency won the account seven years ago.

Unilever and BBH have parted by mutual agreement and that the packaged goods giant has now started the search for a replacement. The new agency will adapt work created by McCann Erickson New York, which has worked on the business since 2003, for the UK market.

Unilever makes pasta sauces, olive oil and olive oil spreads under the Bertolli brand and it has been extended into ready meals in the US. Burton’s Foods makes a range of snacks, Focaccine and Bruschettine for the brand under licence. It appointed Hooper Galton to handle the £4m advertising for the brand last year (MW†March 15, 2007).

BBH will continue to work on Flora, Lynx, Persil, Surf and Vaseline. Lowe London, DDB London and JWT are also Unilever roster agencies. Last week, Lowe won some business for the Knorr brand and in January is was appointed to handle a majority of its ice cream business (MW January 10).