Wednesday September 6, 6:01 am Eastern
Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Envoy Communications Group
Inc.
Envoy builds "best of breed"
with another strategic acquisition
Purchase of The International Design Group
makes Envoy a North American branding powerhouse
TORONTO, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ - Geoff
Genovese, President and CEO of Envoy Communications Group (NASDAQ: ECGI/TSE:
ECG) today announced the company has entered into an agreement to purchase
The International Design Group (IDG), a world renowned retail planning
and design firm. The cash and stock purchase is expected to close in October
of 2000 and represents the second time in the last quarter that Envoy has
purchased a business that complements their brand strategy and design expertise,
the first being Gilchrist Bros. Ltd. of the UK. These acquisitions, along
with the recent purchase of Sage Information Consultants Inc., one of North
America's leading technology solution providers, are part of Envoy's aggressive,
global growth strategy. The purchase of IDG drives Envoy's gross margin
forecast for the period ending December 31st 2000 to approximately $90
million.
As with Gilchrist, IDG will operate
as a division of The Watt Group and will complement Watt's internationally
recognized creative services with almost 30 years of shopping centre and
retail design experience. The organization has undertaken projects in countries
around the world, including Argentina, Canada, Chile, Germany, Israel,
Poland, Turkey, UAE, UK and the US. IDG's international credits include
the design of the Metro Centre in the UK, for ten years the largest shopping
centre in Europe; the Alto Los Condos in Chile, the largest shopping centre
in South America and Duty Free outlets from Istanbul to Jakarta. In Canada,
IDG's design successes include the LCBO, the world's largest retailer of
wines and spirits, the Air Canada Centre's Sports Centre and Paramount
Theatre's flagship Festival Hall and Silver City multi- plexes. IDG is
ranked in the top 50 design firms in the world according to World Architecture
Magazine and won the 1999 Retail Council of Canada's Design Award of the
year for their work on Quebec's La Maison Simon.
``As part of our global growth strategy,
this acquisition moves us closer to our goal of being the best of breed
in each of our three core disciplines: technology, branding and marketing,''
said Genovese. ``With IDG joining the other members of the Envoy branding
group - The Watt Group, Gilchrist Bros. and FUSIONcreative - we are well
on our way to creating the world's premier, full service, brand strategy
and design company,'' he added.
``Like the Gilchrist and Sage acquisitions
earlier this summer, the purchase of IDG is a great strategic move that
will bring our 12-month rolling gross margin to approximately $90 million
for the period ending December 31st 2000 and will increase our EBITDA per
share run-rate to 80 cents,'' said Joe Leeder, Envoy's CFO.
``We're pleased to join Watt and
the Envoy Group of Companies,'' said Ron MacLachlan, Managing Director
of IDG. ``The skill, experience and creativity we can now offer clients
is unprecedented and will position us as one of the world's major design
forces.''
``IDG has great brand equity in markets
around the world and is a perfect fit for Watt,'' said Geoff Belchetz,
President and CEO of The Watt Group. ``The combination of our respective
talents and international experience will enhance our ability to offer
clients integrated branding solutions that achieve bottom line success.''
The Watt Group (www.wattgroup.com)
is the largest strategic retail design group in the world. For the past
thirty years Watt has applied its strategies to drive client profitability
in more than two dozen industries, spanning 35 countries. The Watt Group
has developed some of the worlds most recognized brands, including: Loblaws'
President's Choice; Wal-Mart's Sam's American Choice and Great Value brands;
the Safeway Select brand and PETsMART's corporate brands. Watt has also
created landmark retail concepts like The Home Depot and provided consulting
services for leading brand companies like Kraft, Bell Canada, Borden Foods,
GE, Maple Leaf Foods, Shell Oil, Bank of Montreal and CIBC.
A new breed company, Envoy (www.envoy.to)
is an integrated e-Marketer, digitally driven and committed to building
global brands both off and on-line. Envoy owns leading advertising and
e-Marketing agencies, Communique, Devlin Applied Design, FUSIONcreative,
Gilchrist Bros. Ltd. (UK), Hampel/Stefanides of New York, Sage Information
Consultants and The Watt Group. Envoy's impressive roster of clients include
adidas-Salomon Canada, Aer Lingus, Alliance Atlantis, BASF, Benjamin Moore,
Bermuda Telephone, Bridgestone/ Firestone, CAMCO, Canadian Football League,
Canada Life, CCOHS, CIBC, Castrol, CDNOW, Fairmont Hotels (USA), FedEx,
Fisherman's Friend, Health Canada, Hewlett Packard, Honda, Hummingbird,
IMAX Corporation, Juno Online Services, LCBO, National Discount Brokers,
MAC Cosmetics, Oxford Properties Group Inc., Panasonic, PETsMART, PhoneFree,
Pizza Hut Canada, Prudential (USA), Safeway, SPAR Aerospace, Sprint Canada,
SportsRocket.com, State Farm (USA), Steelcase, Taylor Made, TD Waterhouse
(USA), Wal-Mart and Woofur.com.
SOURCE: Envoy Communications Group
Inc.
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