News

Hamburg/Berlin, 8 February 2008 – The Scholz & Friends Group and Commarco Holding can once again report good results for the year 2007. A new management structure, scheduled to take effect in the 2nd quarter, should also help to ensure ongoing above-average growth for the year 2008. Thomas Heilmann and Sebastian Turner are moving over to the Supervisory Board. Frank-Michael Schmidt and Christian Tiedemann will take over the management of Commarco Holding GmbH. The Executive Board of Scholz & Friends AG, Commarco’s most important subsidiary, will be enlarged by the election of three new Executive Board members: Klaus Dittko, Martin Pross and Matthias Schmidt. Christian Tiedemann stays on as CFO/COO, whilst Frank-Michael Schmidt will become the Chairman of the Scholz & Friends AG Executive Board.

Commarco Holding, one of Europe’s leading independent communications groups whose subsidiaries include Scholz & Friends, Lowe Deutschland, g k k DialogGroup, deepblue networks and United Visions, estimates sales growth in 2007 at approx. 36 percent (of which 11 percent is organic) that will bring fee revenues up to around EUR 124 million. The group has approximately 1,500 employees.

The qualitative results for the year are equally satisfactory. Commarco subsidiary Scholz & Friends was able to write the next chapter of its success story by becoming the only German agency to be named one of the country’s three most creative advertising agencies for a continuous period of ten years. The Gunn Report has been rating Scholz & Friends as one of the world’s best agencies for several years now. The Won Report just published rates Scholz & Friends as one of the world’s five best agencies. Client surveys and efficiency competitions conducted during 2007 once again awarded the agency high placings. Scholz & Friends also received awards for outstanding quality in the fields of PR, events, design, interactive and dialogue and is steadily and successfully evolving its “Orchestra of Ideas” concept.

The other subsidiaries also made significant contributions to Commarco’s excellent progress. Not only Scholz & Friends, but also deepblue networks, the
g k k DialogGroup and United Visions were all able to report the best annual results in their corporate history.

Commarco Holding’s revenue structure reflects the broadening of the range of services provided as well as growth in all fields of activity. Non-traditional communication now accounts for over 60 percent of total revenues. The agencies affiliated to Scholz & Friends are already contributing over 35 percent of the group’s sales.

Through cooperation arrangements with the Lowe Group the agencies are now able to offer a global service. Lowe Worldwide has just been named once again as one of the world’s most creative networks.

The solid foundations on which Commarco’s success stands is reflected in its shareholder structure, which includes the main shareholder Cognetas, a leading, independent, pan-European private equity company, plus over 40 of the group’s own managers. A series of promotions scheduled to take effect during the 2nd quarter should ensure that double-digit growth will once again be achieved in 2008. Klaus Dittko, Martin Pross and Matthias Schmidt, three longstanding members of the agency’s Board of Partners, will be elected to the Scholz & Friends Executive Board. Klaus Dittko, the General Manager of the PR Agency Scholz & Friends Agenda, will take over responsibility for the Public Relations Division. Martin Pross, who has for many years been Creative General Manager of Scholz & Friends Berlin, and Matthias Schmidt, Creative General Manager of Scholz & Friends Hamburg, will be responsible in tandem for the Scholz & Friends Group’s creative product. This will be the first time that the Scholz & Friends Executive Board has had two creative members.

Responsibilities have been reallocated in the Commarco Executive Board as well. Commarco will in future have Frank-Michael Schmidt and Christian Tiedemann as CEOs vested with equal powers. “Within the new management constellation we will continue along the successful path followed in the past years. The focus will be squarely on transformation from a communications group into a comprehensive marketing services network. We will build up a leading position in all the relevant fields of business, pursuing a multi-brand strategy that will result in more efficient exploitation of market potential and generation of above-average growth”, says Frank-Michael Schmidt.

After 18 years with the company, eleven as General Managers and seven as Executive Board Chairmen, Thomas Heilmann and Sebastian Turner are relinquishing their executive duties and moving over into the Commarco Supervisory Board. Heilmann and Turner will stay on as members of the Board of Partners and will, of course, also keep their shareholdings. They will remain at the disposal of the agency’s managers and clients in an advisory capacity. Both are also planning new entrepreneurial commitments and expansion of their academic activities.

“We would like to thank Thomas Heilmann and Sebastian Turner for the excellent results produced by them in past years and are glad that they will be continuing to guide the group’s fortunes in the Supervisory Board. They have led the group to its best-ever financial results and have propelled it to the creative peak at global level. We are confident that the team led by Frank-Michael Schmidt and Christian Tiedemann, who were, of course, intimately involved in the success story, will continue on this course”, says John Spearman, the group’s Supervisory Board Chairman. 

Commarco

The Commarco Holding is one of Europe’s leading independent communications groups. Under the roof of the holding company, about 30 advertising and specialised agencies provide the entire spectrum of communication disciplines. Among the best known agency brands are Scholz & Friends, deepblue networks, g k k DialogGroup and Lowe Deutschland. The agencies of the holding employ approximately 1,500 persons across Europe. Currently the company is held to approximately 65 percent by the private equity firm Cognetas, and approximately 35 percent of the shares are held by the management. Business activity is focused within Germany. Through agencies in various European cities and via a strategic alliance with Lowe Worldwide for international markets in which Commarco does not have its own presence, the network is also able to successfully coordinate and implement global campaigns.

Cognetas LLP

Cognetas LLP, a leading, independent, pan-European private equity company, which focuses its activities on complex buy-outs of medium-sized companies, has offices in Frankfurt, London, Milan and Paris. It advises funds with a value of € 2.26 billion. Its investment team has a long record of investment successes in various sectors including service companies, manufacturing companies, the consumer goods industry, financial services and services and equipment for the health care sector. Cognetas announced the closing of Cognetas Fund II with a volume of € 1.26 billion in the summer of 2005.

Press Contact
Nicole Ruhl
Tel  +49(0)40/82 21 95-920
Fax +49(0)40/82 21 95-999
nicole.ruhl@commarco.com
pr@commarco.com