Guy Robertson Partnership (GRP) announces that the agency is to close after 25 years
The Guy Robertson Partnership, one of Glasgow's best known advertising agencies, has announced that is is to be wound-up after around 25 years in business.
It is understood the business was facing mounting debts which, as a partnership, its partners could in theory be personally liable for.
Guy Robertson told The Drum: “This has been a very difficult decision and having just signed the Trust Deeds which officially starts this process I am absolutely exhausted.
“But as a partnership we will not be leaving any debt behind. In fact the agency could have carried on but we felt that there would then be a risk of building up an unsustainable debt.
“The last couple of years trading have been very difficult and with our Partnership underpinned by the equity in our office building - which the Bank has devalued due to market conditions - we have decided to take action ourselves in order to minimise the effect on clients, suppliers and staff.
“At the end of the day the business just could not support the current scale of its overhead and the sensible thing to do was call it a day.”
However, Robertson and senior manager Garry Allan both intend to start their own businesses which will aim to take on the majority of the accounts and six of the nine staff that will be affected. Robertson recently registered a new company called Guy Robertson Advertising Limited and Allan is to set up Big Think Agency Limited, where he will be joined by Iain Finlay, the creative partner who had been with Guy Robertson since 1987.
Launched in 1986 the agency became a high profile fixture on the Glasgow scene and at its peak handled Toyota's retail account. However, it never properly recovered after losing this business in 2009.
According to the IPA the agency's current accounts include: Highland Spring, USC, NHS Glasgow, The Dawn Group, Dale's Cycles, Glasgow City Council and Persimmon Homes. Said Robertson: “Initial reaction from clients has been very supportive.”