City of Sydney’s street furniture transition to QMS delayed further
The QMS takeover of City of Sydney’s street furniture contract has been delayed again, with the transition from current contract holder JC Decaux to now take place in September.
QMS was awarded the street furniture and outdoor advertising contract for City of Sydney in June of 2020, after a prolonged negotiation process, and after Australia’s largest out-of-home contract opened up expressions of interest (EOI) in 2017.
JC Decaux’s contract was originally set to end in 2018, but has been extended on multiple occasions, with a spokesperson for City of Sydney now revealing a further extension through to September.
JC Decaux’s City Of Sydney street furniture will be removed from September
The spokesperson said this most recent extension has occurred to mitigate against potential COVID-related supply issues.
“The transition of JCDecaux street furniture to QMS infrastructure will commence in September 2021. The City of Sydney initially opted to begin the transition in August. We have negotiated for an extra month, in case of supply issues due to COVID,” the spokesperson told Mumbrella.
“We are staging the transition to ensure furniture is replaced as soon as it’s removed, to minimise disruption, delays and gaps.”
QMS and JC Decaux will work together to remove the existing street furniture. “Our contracts require both JCDecaux and QMS to undertake and coordinate all works in the transition to the new furniture to minimise disruption to the community,” the spokesperson said.
“Given the large number of street furniture items with the local government area, the transition will take around six months to complete.”
A spokesperson for QMS confirmed to Mumbrella that JC Decaux will begin the removal of its assets in September.
“QMS are on track to install the new street furniture suite of assets as JC Decaux remove their existing furniture. The asset extraction plan has been agreed with JCDecaux and the City of Sydney on an outside / in basis (removal of outer suburbs first).”
“JC Decaux will be removing their assets from September and QMS will follow behind with the installation of the new assets also from September. The rollout will follow closely behind the JCDecaux removal program and will span a period of 6 months to minimise the disruption to the City.”
JC Decaux has held the contract for over 20 years, and QMS’s spokesperson said: “As the current JC Decaux street furniture is over 20 years old and does not comply with the current Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and Inclusivity Standards, QMS has worked closely with the City of Sydney to ensure that the new design complies with today’s standards, including additional functionality and sustainability measures.”
“As the exclusive provider of street furniture advertising within the City of Sydney, QMS is excited to begin the rollout of its ground-breaking digitally-led offering and be able to provide marketers with the unique opportunity to impact and influence consumers where they live, work and play, through a powerful and digitally focused advertising network.”
In April, QMS announced the hire of Jemma Enright to lead the new City of Sydney media offering.
JC Decaux declined to comment on the forthcoming transition.
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Zanda Wilson was a reporter and podcast producer at Mumbrella, specialising in radio reporting. He left Mumbrella in September 2021.
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