Railtrack to expand its outdoor sites

Railtrack Property has approached outdoor contractors to identify new advertising sites so it can add to its existing portfolio of billboards on land it owns by roadsides.

The company is keen to reward contractors which do not have an existing relationship with the company. This means Maiden and JC Decaux subsidiary Mills & Allen have not been asked to tender as they already control the bulk of Railtrack’s advertising portfolio.

The company is talking to four contractors about building new sites – More Group, TDI, Primesight and Van Wagner. With 4,000 sites Railtrack already has seven per cent of the large format market, but says it now wants to develop further.

Railtrack appointed Yan Huybrechts from MediaVest last year as commercial advertising manager. Part of his brief was to review the company’s existing contracts and identify ways to increase outdoor advertising revenue.

According to insiders, Railtrack is planning to offer contractors 25 per cent of the net income from each new site.

Huybrechts says: “Our objective is to make our portfolio deliver maximum revenues. We need to ensure we are getting best value from those sites by working with the right people and giving the right incentives.”