News

Marketing services group Loewy has paid £10m to acquire Epoch Design, the Bristol-based retail packaging design specialist.

Private equity house Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) provided funding of £12m to enable Loewy to close the Epoch deal as well as acquire PR agency Mantra.

The acquisitions, which are part of Loewy's plan to build a £100m integrated 'super agency', follow the purchase of packaging design agency Williams Murray Hamm in December 2006.

Loewy chief executive Charlie Hoult said the support of VSS would give the firm "the credibility and ammunition to continue with its expansion plans", which could include acquisitions in the US, where Loewy was started 75 years ago.

Epoch Design was founded in 1993 by managing director Anthony Lucas with Graham Peace and Mark Wildgoose. Dave Forman joined them as creative director in 2000.

The firm employs 38 staff, who will remain in Bristol. The Epoch name will be retained for the foreseeable future.

The firm specialises in point-of-sale, retail-ready and secondary packaging and counts Diageo, Nokia and Unilever among its clients.

Lucas said the deal would enable Epoch to take its expertise to a wider audience.

Hoult said Epoch's "innovation, business experience and design talent" made the firm stand out as a target as Loewy continued to build a "multi-specialist family".

Over the past three years, Loewy has grown to 350 staff and a £47m turnover.