Unpleasant inheritances

Erb Bankruptcy: The corporate conglomerate, which is currently in the process of liquidation, also owes money to advertising and media agencies.Wolfgang Mecklenburg estimates the Erb Group’s outstanding debts to his media agency, mm&b, at «a good 400,000 francs.» Nevertheless, media planning continues. «All the Erb companies we work for are in good financial health,» he emphasizes. But day-to-day work has become more difficult: Erb also has unpaid bills with the media outlets—and they now only run Erb’s ads after payment, says Mecklenburg. mm&b has managed Erb’s media budget for years. In 2003, it amounted to around 20 million Swiss francs. «We’re unlucky, but it doesn’t hit us where it hurts, and we won’t be laying anyone off,» says Mecklenburg. He even sees a light at the end of the tunnel: «Even if the group is broken up, we’ll stay on the ball.» Ideally, he’d like to see the Emil Frey Group take over Erb’s automotive division. Through his second agency, m&m, Mecklenburg has also been managing that budget since 1997. «Then we could unite all the car brands under the m&m umbrella and thus make up for half of what we’re losing through cost savings.»
Creative professionals are also feeling the effects of the Erb disaster. For example, the Mitsubishi agency One Stop is owed a «substantial sum.» Ted Metzger of Metzgerlehner (Hyundai and Suzuki) also mentions «certain outstanding payments.» Both agencies have not lost hope, as the three car brands do not intend to withdraw from Switzerland. Relations with these brands are also good, according to both One Stop and Metzgerlehner. That’s why day-to-day business continues as usual, and preparations for the auto show in two months are even in full swing. «The first part of the work is already done anyway,» says Metzger.
(mk)