News

29/10/2009, Hamburg/Berlin – Commarco, Germany's largest independent agency network, is to acquire the pan-European dialogue-marketing specialist Celsius International on 31 October 2009. With this agency take-over, the Commarco affiliate gkk DialogGroup focuses on expanding its extensive range of CRM services and solutions in Europe. In doing this, it will push forward the internationalisation of the Commarco network’s CRM expertise.

To Frank-Michael Schmidt, CEO of Commarco, “the acquisition of Celsius International is an important step in the expansion of our European network and the development of international expertise beyond classic advertising. Thanks to Celsius International, the German Commarco holdings will be able to offer their clients pan-European CRM/dialogue solutions. We are looking forward to expanding and extending our playing field in Europe with the expertise of Celsius.”

According to Harald Kling, Managing Director of the gkk DialogGroup and partner at Commarco, “the acquisition of Celsius International enables us to offer our broad range of CRM services throughout Europe. We can thus provide customers with our highly-specialised solutions in other important markets outside Germany. This is something we are very happy about.”  

Thomas Hübner, Managing Director of Celsius gkk International, states that “after the successful cooperation between Celsius International and the Commarco subsidiary gkk DialogGroup in recent years, we are happy to now be able to realise the synergy and cross-selling potential identified during this collaboration, working together within the Commarco holding network. The cooperation with additional agencies and disciplines in the Commarco network is a strong selling point for new and existing clients.”

The pan-European dialogue-marketing network Celsius International, henceforth to be known as Celsius gkk International, was founded in 1997 by Tom Richardson and Thomas Hübner and works with international high-tech blue chips such as Symantec, Continental and SAP. The key areas of expertise of the agency based in Nice, France are cross-border business-to-business CRM solutions, in particular in the area of database marketing. Tom Richardson and Thomas Hübner will continue to head Celsius gkk International. The agency employs an internationally oriented team of CRM specialists from more than 10 countries.

According to the independent agency rankings, the gkk DialogGroup is currently the second largest dialogue-marketing agency in Germany. Founded in 1996, it recorded its most successful business year in 2008 with a gross income of over 30 million euros and 30% growth. gkk has been a part of the Commarco Group since 2007 and is the holding network’s second largest brand, after Scholz & Friends.

Commarco is the largest holding of communication and marketing service providers based in Germany. Around 30 advertising and specialist agencies offer almost the entire spectrum of communication disciplines under the Commarco umbrella. Among their best-known agency brands are gkk DialogGroup, Scholz & Friends and deepblue networks. The holding has a staff of around 1,200 in its agencies throughout Europe.

Press contact
Commarco
Markus Mayr
Tel +49-40/3 76 81-900
pr@commarco.com