PR agency Kreab closes Australian office with 14 job losses
A PR agency which was once among Australia’s top communications operations has finally closed its doors four years after most of its senior staff walked out to start a competitor.
PR and communications company Kreab closed its Australian operation on December 23, terminating its 14 remaining staff, Mumbrella can reveal.
The agency shut up shop just one day after an ad appeared in the Australian Financial Review from administrator PKF seeking to sell the company and its client lists.
One worker told Mumbrella: “Even though there were still clients on the books the company wasn’t viable. The decision to cease trading was made by the administrators.”
The company hit a downward spiral in 2013 when six of its senior partners quit after a failed management buyout.
KGA managing partner Brain Tyson – who led the buyout proposal – instead led the new opening of Newgate Australia, along with colleagues Felicity Allen, Campbell Moors, Sue Vercoe, Jodie Brough, Feyi Akindoyeni, Greg Baxter and Miche Paterson.
Kreab – which rebranded globally from Kreab Gavin Anderson in 2015 – has its roots in Swedish consultancy Kreab which launched in 1970 and US firm Gavin Anderson & Co which launched in 1981 with a focus on financial and corporate communications. Omnicom Group is among Kreab’s shareholders globally.
PFK declined to formally comment.
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$4M turnover with 14 staff… yeah, right
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yeah that’s exactly right, Scott…these businesses have margins anywhere from 25% to 45% with hourly fees ranging up to $600 p.h….and they are far more efficient than advertising agencies, which are anachronistic by comparison in terms of stuffing clients with juniors, insisting on multiple specialists when a generalist would be adequate in many situations…
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