News

Packaging design specialist Williams Murray Hamm (WMH) has been bought by marketing services group Loewy for £7m.

The acquisition is part of Loewy’s plan to build a £100m integrated ‘super agency’ and follows last month’s acquisition of PR companies Rainier and Bite.

Almost a quarter of Loewy’s 200 staff will now be involved in packaging design. The company aims to expand to 300 staff by Easter and has already earmarked another design agency for acquisition.

“We are merging with WMH because we’re busy,” said Loewy chief executive Charlie Hoult.

“We recognise that the bigger brands want a ‘one-stop shop’ and a more integrated approach to their advertising, promotion, packaging and website, and we are growing to be that agency. There are no plans to change the name of WMH or merge to the teams. We will be working together on new projects.”

Hoult said that WMH, like Loewy, had a history of building iconic brands.

Loewy’s design heritage goes back 75 years – it designed the Coca-Cola bottle and Lucky Strike cigarette pack – while WMH created Sainsbury’s SO organic food and drink branding.

WMH co-director Richard Murray said: “WMH will be 10 years old next month and we felt it was time for some change. Loewy has a heritage in design and we felt they would value what we do. The merger will allow us to do different types of work.”