M & A to sell ‘top-up’sites in Net Auction

Poster contractor Mills & Allen is to sell its unsold panels to the highest bidder over the Internet.

The fortnightly online auction will be aimed at advertisers interested in topping up their existing poster campaigns by choosing from 200 to 250 extra sites.

David Pugh, chief executive of Mills & Allen, says this is the number of panels, out of the company’s inventory of 11,000 48-sheets, which tend to remain unsold. Reasons cited include being taken out of circulation for repairs, or being too close to a school to be eligible for a tobacco advertising campaign.

The auction is open to poster specialists and will be run every second Thursday by online auctioneer QXL.

Interested parties make sealed bids for the panels, and may put in their final price immediately or bid step by step, as e-mail keeps them up to date when the price has risen.

v Maiden Outdoor’s Website – www.posterinfo.com – which features major outdoor campaigns as well as giving back-up information, has received 650,000 hits since it was launched at the end of January.