Management of Media Sales to be domiciled in Zurich
Publigroupe’s new Media Sales division is expected to be based in Zurich. Hans-Peter Rohner, CEO of Publigroupe, confirmed this information reported by Werbewoche. However, Rohner firmly denies industry rumors that Publigroupe’s headquarters will be relocated entirely from Lausanne to Zurich.
Publigroupe's new Media Sales division, which was created in 2008, will in all likelihood be managed in Zurich. Hans-Peter Rohner, CEO of Publigroupe, confirmed this information to Werbewoche: "I assume that there will be certain geographical shifts in the management of Media Sales from Lausanne to Zurich". After all, the subsidiaries Cinecom, Radiotele and Web2com are already based in the city on the Limmat, as are Publimedia, NZZMedia and other Publicitas companies. The designated Head of Media Sales, Robert Schmidli, currently heads the Publidirect division, which is also domiciled in Zurich. The exact structure will be communicated in September and the plans will be implemented this year. According to Rohner, it is not yet possible to say exactly how many people will move to Zurich. Accordingly, it is still unclear how much the Lausanne site will be decimated. According to Rohner, it is also not yet clear whether the employees working in French-speaking Switzerland will move to German-speaking Switzerland or "look for a new challenge": "We are only at the very beginning of the discussion".
Media Sales will employ around 1900 people worldwide, around 1400 of them in Switzerland. All the sales activities of PubliPresse (Publicitas, Publimedia, Publimag, Publiconnect and Mosse Media), the international Publicitas Promotion Network and the electronic, digital and interactive media managed by PubliGroupe will be pooled in this new division (see
). Rohner firmly denied industry rumors that Publigroupe's headquarters would be relocated to the city on the Limmat. "Our head office has been in Lausanne since 1934, before that it was in Geneva for more than 20 years and in Basel from the very beginning in 1890. There is no question of relocating the head office," said the CEO. However, he can understand how the rumor came about: "Publicitas, which has been integrated into the new Media Sales division, is often equated with Publigorupe from the outside."
However, with Publidirect, Custom Publishing and Digital & Marketing Services, the company also comprises three other divisions. Publidirect is already based in Zurich, Custom Publishing operates in Hong Kong and Digital & Marketing Services has two mainstays, Namics and Zanox, in St. Gallen and Berlin respectively. "It is possible that other companies will be added that are based outside of Switzerland," said Rohner. The aim is to support the strategy of internationalization. "Where the business units have their headquarters geographically plays an increasingly minor role in an internationally oriented company. The distance between Lausanne and Zurich is also short at two hours by train. I travel it myself several times a week," explained Rohner.
Media Sales will employ around 1900 people worldwide, around 1400 of them in Switzerland. All the sales activities of PubliPresse (Publicitas, Publimedia, Publimag, Publiconnect and Mosse Media), the international Publicitas Promotion Network and the electronic, digital and interactive media managed by PubliGroupe will be pooled in this new division (see
). Rohner firmly denied industry rumors that Publigroupe's headquarters would be relocated to the city on the Limmat. "Our head office has been in Lausanne since 1934, before that it was in Geneva for more than 20 years and in Basel from the very beginning in 1890. There is no question of relocating the head office," said the CEO. However, he can understand how the rumor came about: "Publicitas, which has been integrated into the new Media Sales division, is often equated with Publigorupe from the outside."
However, with Publidirect, Custom Publishing and Digital & Marketing Services, the company also comprises three other divisions. Publidirect is already based in Zurich, Custom Publishing operates in Hong Kong and Digital & Marketing Services has two mainstays, Namics and Zanox, in St. Gallen and Berlin respectively. "It is possible that other companies will be added that are based outside of Switzerland," said Rohner. The aim is to support the strategy of internationalization. "Where the business units have their headquarters geographically plays an increasingly minor role in an internationally oriented company. The distance between Lausanne and Zurich is also short at two hours by train. I travel it myself several times a week," explained Rohner.
Carole Scheidegger
