Nectar card owner buys Carlson Marketing
Groupe Aeroplan, the Canadian loyalty management company that owns the Nectar programme, has acquired Carlson Marketing, the US loyalty marketing company.
The $175.3m (£107m) deal will include transaction costs of $6.5m (£4m) and Groupe Aeroplan expects to incur one-off costs of $15m (£9.1m).
The deal is subject to antitrust approval in the US and Canada, but is expected to finalise in December 2009.
Carlson Marketing is owned by US-based Carlson Companies, a restaurant and hotel business that also owns the Radisson hotel brand and TGI Friday restaurant chain.
Groupe Aeroplan also owns LMG Insight & Communications (I&C), which provides retail and communication data analysis to Sainsbury’s and more than 100 FMCG manufacturers.
Robert Duchesne, president and chief executive of Groupe Aeroplan, says the acquisition is a “logical extension” of the company’s diversification and international expansion plans, and will particularly boost I&C’s US expansion.
Carlson Marketing has clients in the financial services, automotive, consumer goods, pharmaceutical and hi-tech sectors and a presence in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Current president and chief executive Jeff Balagna will continue to lead the company.
In March, Groupe Aeroplan appointed Jan-Pieter Lips as managing director, replacing Brian Sinclair who returned to Canada in an executive
position with Groupe Aeroplan.
