The former advertising flagship Publicitas is about to be scrapped
Publicitas once dominated the Swiss advertising market and generated billions in revenue. Now, this 128-year-old company with a long history is on the brink of collapse. A chronicle.
1868: Founded in 1855 in Hamburg-Altona, "Insertionsagentur Haasenstein & " establishes a branch in Basel and gradually expands its advertising business throughout Switzerland.
1890: Charles W. Georg, son of a German immigrant, takes over the company, converts it into a joint stock company and moves the headquarters to Geneva. He expands the business to Italy, France and Spain and acquires the parent company in Hamburg.
1917: The company adopts the less German-sounding name Publicitas, its telegram address at the time. By the outbreak of World War I, the agency has 54 branches and 380 agencies in nine European countries.
1930: The registered office of the company is transferred to Lausanne.
1947: After concentrating on its business in Switzerland during the two world wars, Publicitas reopened a branch in Paris in 1947.
1965: Publicitas is once again starting to build up an international network comprising agencies in 17 countries under the umbrella of Groupe Publicitas International.
1988: A hostile takeover bid by real estate dealer Jürg Stäubli fails.
1989: The Advertising Group is brought together under Publicitas Holding Ltd. At this time, it counts 30 companies with 3450 employees and holds minority interests in several newspapers. Sales exceed the two billion mark for the first time.
1992: Under the impression of a massive decline in advertising, Publicitas swallows the numbers two and three in the industry, Orell Füssli Werbe AG and Assa. This gives it around 65 percent of the total advertising market in Switzerland.
1998: Publicitas Holding renames itself PubliGroupe and restructures its advertising companies a year later.
2001: Massively dwindling advertising volumes in the print media and bad investments in the online sector cause Publigroupe to slide deep into the red. Around 1000 jobs are cut in the following years. The Group is able to keep its head above water through real estate sales and profitable investments such as local.ch.
2002: The Competition Commission launches an investigation into possible abuse of a dominant market position by Publicitas. In 2007, it fines the Group CHF 2.5 million.
July 2014: After losing leases with several newspaper publishers, Publicitas is sold to the German investment company Aurelius. At this point, it still has 860 employees.
September 2014: After a bidding war with Tamedia, Swisscom acquires Publigroupe.
December 2016: Aurelius sells Publicitas to CEO Jörg Nürnberg, CFO Carsten Brinkmeier and a silent partner.
April 2018: Tamedia, Ringier and Admeira as well as the NZZ media group are ending their collaboration with Publicitas. The move is justified by the unsatisfactory payment behavior of the advertising intermediary.
May 3, 2018: Publicitas announces that the District Court of Bülach has confirmed a provisional debt-restructuring moratorium.
Chronicle: SDA
