Creative agency CHE Proximity has made 35 positions redundant, Mumbrella can reveal.
CEO Chris Howatson told Mumbrella that the redundancies resulted from COVID-19’s impact on the agency’s clients.
Temporary salary reductions were also put in place at the agency
“A number of our clients were central or adjacent to travel, leisure and lifestyle categories and were forced to hibernate their businesses with immediate effect upon the arrival of COVID-related measures. These clients have endured a terrible time and we’re delighted to see their businesses slowly remerge.
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“Their closures obviously had an impact on our business, and as a result we made the very difficult decision to let 35 people go, or 8% of our total workforce,” Howatson said.
CHEP’s clients include eBay, Ikea, Samsung, Velocity Frequent Flyer and Flybuys.
At the end of March, CHEP’s Sydney managing director, Vanessa Nicol, was made redundant in a move to “protect the jobs of the wider agency”. The start date for an incoming, unannounced managing director for the Melbourne office was also pushed back to January 2021 at the time.
Howatson added that temporary salary reductions were also put in place at the agency, but are currently being scaled back.
“Similar to other businesses, we’ve also managed annual leave and temporary salary reductions to protect jobs. Fortunately, as we plan the return to the office we’re experiencing a return to spend and these sustainability measures have been scaled back. It’s a difficult time for our people, clients and our industry and we’re supporting all three in every way we can,” he said.